The Divergent Crusade
by Sapphire1123
Summary: Tris, Tobias and the other initiates begin their lives in dauntless, but what happens when enemies, war, and a mysterious presence threaten their peace. What will they lose? What will they gain? Story starts right after rankings are announced in Divergent. First Fanfic. Please Read and Review honestly. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Tris POV

Then I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn to see Tobias standing behind me. I get up, beaming.

"You think giving you a hug would give away too much?" he says.

"You know," I say, "I really don't care."

I stand on my tiptoes and press my lips to his.

It is the best moment of my life.

His arms encircle my waist and we finish the kiss before too many people have time to pay us any attention. I turn around while Tobias releases his grip on my waist and see Christina and Will gaping at us, while Uriah has the biggest grin on his face; almost like he already knew. I will have to ask Tobias about it later. For now my attention is on my best friend whose expression has turned from shock, to anger, to glee all within the span of 10 seconds.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner." I start to explain.

But Christina just grabs me in the biggest hug I've ever received and whispers in my ear. "So this is why he never scared you." She gives me a wink while releasing me.

My face turns bright red and Tobias gives me a funny look as if to ask what she said. I just shake my head and smile at how easily it seems everything is going to work out. Just then Tobias gets called away by the leaders to finish up with all the training paperwork and I decide to head back to the dorm with Christina and Will.

Tomorrow we will be able to choose our new jobs and get assigned our living spaces. I am happy tonight will be our last night in the dorm; I don't have many happy memories in this room and as I close my eyes and drift off to sleep I find myself dreaming about people being stabbed in the eye with butter knives.

…

I wake up the next morning before anyone else and I decide to head to the training room to get a workout in before I have to get ready for the ceremony today. Even though I am no longer fighting for a slot into dauntless I still feel the need to become stronger, faster, better than I am.

After a half hour of working out with the punching bag I hear the door open and I turn around to see who else would be here this early after the dauntless party last night. I see Tobias walk in looking surprised to see me as well.

"Hi." he says. In a way that's almost shy and I didn't think him capable of.

"Hi." I say back. We stand there awkwardly staring at each other for almost longer than I can handle before I decide to be dauntless and I run up to him and give him a hug.

When we part he has a smirk on his face and I can tell that he is happy I was the one to break the awkwardness. I almost laugh, but instead I just punch him not so lightly on the arm. His face morphs into a shocked expression and for a second I think I may have done the wrong thing until he breaks out into a smile.

"I'm sorry." He says, "I've never dated anyone before so I'm not really sure what we do next."

I smile at him and reply, "Me neither. I guess we try to get to know each other more, spend time together, and stuff." I know it's kind of a lame answer, but it's the best I could think of.

"OK then, do you want to come to my place this afternoon and we can go to Zeke's party tonight?" He asks after a moment hesitation.

"I'd love to!" I reply, "But I should get going so I have time to get ready for the ceremony."

"See you soon." He says.

I leave the training room feeling amazing, until I realize I only have one hour until I have to choose what job I am going to have at dauntless. I still think that being the ambassador to the other factions would be a good fit; I just hope that it wouldn't show my divergence too much. I should have asked Tobias what he thought. But I want this decision to be only mine, that way I can truly feel like I made it through everything on my own with no extra help from anyone.

As I enter the dormitory all thoughts of jobs leave my head as I see Peter standing by the door with a look of pure hatred on his face. I know without even having to ask that the look is intended for me and I look around in vain for my friends. They must have assumed I was already at breakfast and left too and now I'm stuck here alone with a pissed off Peter.

He stalks by me and just as he gets close he shoves his shoulder into me hard. I was braced for the impact, but that doesn't stop me from falling back against the door handle hard enough to create a bruise. "Watch yourself, Stiff." He whispers menacingly as he walks out of the room. This is the Peter I am afraid of; the quiet, internally raging, scheming Peter.

I quickly shower and put on my nicest pair of black skinny jeans, my off the shoulder black top and my boots. I sneak a peak in the mirror before I leave the room and all I can think of is how dauntless I look. I am first. I am proud. I leave the room with a smug smile on my face and make my way to the cafeteria, as I temporarily forget the Erudite war on Abnegation and focus facing Peter head on, even if that means kicking his ass. Not very abnegation of me, but I am dauntless now.


	2. Chapter 2

Tobias POV

After I finish my typical morning workout I shower quickly and head to the cafeteria to grab breakfast. On the way my thoughts wander between Tris and the war that I found out is coming. I know I should be working on finding out more about the war and how the Erudite plan to use us against the Abnegation, but I can't help being distracted by Tris.

I enter the cafeteria and look around for my friends. I see them at a table with a few surprising additions. Zeke, Shauna, Marlene, Lynn, Uriah, Tris, Christina, and Will are all sitting at the same table. I knew Tris was meant to be dauntless. I smile and take the empty seat on her right, giving her a small kiss on top of her head as I sit down. She turns to me and gives me a smile I've only seen on her face a few times. I smile back and grab a muffin from the middle of the table.

"So glad to see you two finally decided to make it official." Zeke says in a serious voice. I told him almost right after Tris got here that I thought I had feelings for her, because I was freaked out and didn't know what to do. Being my best friend he vowed to keep it a secret and gave me the advice to just go for it.

"Finally?!" Christina pipes up, "When exactly did all of this start?" She gives Tris a death glare.

Tris replies smoothly, "Well it was really gradual, but that night after I followed Four, was our first kiss."

"Oh my gosh, that is so cute!", Shrieks Christina, loud enough to gather the attention of the rowdy dauntless crowd.

I look around Tris and give her my best trainer death glare. She shrinks back a little bit and says, "sorry" before turning to Tris and mouthing we need to talk later. I just roll my eyes, since I clearly saw that, but Tris laughs and I decide as long as she is ok with it, then I don't care. We all go back to talking about anything and everything and before we know it it's time to head to the ceremony.

The ceremony is held in the pit. They set up a stage that each initiate has to go up on and choose which job they want to learn to do as a new member of dauntless. They choose in order of rank and there are a limited number of slots available for each position. This year the top 8 initiates will get to choose and the last 2 automatically work at the fence. I am happy about this because last year only the top 5 got to choose and I know Tris would be upset if Christina and Will weren't at the compound.

Eric gets up on stage and posts the job availabilities for the initiates and starts to give his speech. I look over the possible jobs wondering what Tris will choose; It's funny we never talked about this. The possibilities are:

Leader-in-training 1  
Control Room 1  
Nurse 2  
Faction Ambassador 2  
Tattoo Artist 1  
Assistant to the Leaders 1

I groan remembering that I am going to have to deal with one of these initiates a lot in the control room and I just hope that Peter doesn't have some secret desire to do it, because I think I'd kick his ass the second he entered the room. I look over the list again trying to place Tris in each position and decide what she will choose. I don't get too far into it when I hear Eric call her name and she walks on stage. She stands in front of the crowd looking confident and strong. That's my Tris I think proudly. I am not surprised when she says she would like to be an ambassador to the factions; it may be one of the more dangerous positions for a divergent to be in, but it's so Tris. The rest of the initiates' choices go by quickly and it ends up:

Leader-in-training: Uriah  
Control Room: Will  
Nurse: Marlene & Amaya  
Faction Ambassador: Tris & Peter  
Tattoo Artist: Lynn  
Assistant to the Leaders: Christina

I am a little concerned about Tris having to work so closely with Peter since I know that he is dangerous and she hates him, but I know she can take care of herself too. She makes her way through the crowd to me, and we walk hand in hand back to my apartment. She has been assigned her own apartment, but I am thinking about asking her to stay in mine with me. I know it's a big step considering we really haven't been together that long, but I figure she can keep her place for when she needs space, and I like when she is around. She makes me feel strong and grounded.


	3. Chapter 3

Tris POV

It's been 3 weeks since we chose our jobs in dauntless and I am so happy with what I am doing. Being an ambassador is a lot of work and we spent 2 weeks just learning all the customs of the other factions so that we can communicate appropriately with all of them. Being at the same job as Peter has been a pain because he is a jerk all the time, even if he is quiet about it. I thought that maybe he would try something after initiation was over, but I guess he already feels as though he's won since I didn't choose leader-in-training.

Aside from work I've been spending a lot of time getting to know Tobias. He asked me if I would like to move in with him, and although my fear of intimacy nearly made me say no, we had a long talk about how unprepared I was for anything like that and in the end I decided that I wanted to be around Tobias more. He makes me feel safe. I am excited because tonight we are going to have our 1 month anniversary dinner, and Tobias said he has a surprise for me. I'm not usually big on surprises, but if it's from Tobias I think I can handle it.

Peter's voice breaks me out of my daydreaming, "Almost done in there Tris?" He shouts from the next room. Shoot I was supposed to be looking for the notes on the last ambassador meeting.

I quickly look around and see the folder lying on a table in the corner, "Got it!" I yell back.

I walk out into the office that Peter and I share and start to spread the notes out on the table in front of us. The factions have been really tense lately with the Erudite spreading more lies about Abnegation and now some Candor are starting to get involved. Tobias has been working in the control room to find out more about Erudite plans against Abnegation and I've been working on my end, but so far neither of us has had much luck. Christina on the other hand, has had some success over-hearing our leaders talking to Erudite leaders about what the next steps should be, but nothing specific enough for us to stop it. We all have to be careful too, one wrong step and someone could end up dead.

After 2 more hours going through all the notes and making a plan for what information we want to get at the next meeting Peter and I leave the office. I head to Christina's apartment to get ready for date night, because she insisted on letting her give me a makeover. I normally would have refused since I know Tobias likes how I look, but tonight feels special, so I agreed to the torture.

I arrive at Christina's just as Will does and he lets me in. I guess they have been living together too. Christina is waiting for me, with all of her makeup on a table in front of a huge mirror. There is a garment bag hanging off of one side of the table, which I assume holds the dress she told me I couldn't see until tonight. This makes me nervous because Christina's fashion sense and mine are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum, but she promised not to put me in something too tight or short. She immediately sits me down in front of the mirror and shoes Will out of the room, claiming girl time. I chuckle lightly.

"So…any idea what Four has planned for the evening?" She asks me.

I shake my head and reply, "Nope. He has been secretly planning this for a whole week now and he won't even give me the tiniest clue."

She laughs and says, "Good for him, you deserve to be spoiled and surprised."

"I guess I am really excited, I just don't like not being able to prepare myself for whatever is going to happen." I whine.

"Ha" Christina scoffs, "Your boyfriend is taking you out on a nice date, what exactly do you need to prepare for?"

"I don't know." I concede. I sometimes hate logical thinking.

Christina goes back to working on my hair. Until I ask, "How are you and Will doing? Are you guys enjoying your jobs and everything?"

"Meh, my job is kind of boring for dauntless." She replies. "I mean a part from the sneaking around spying on the leaders that is"

"Yeah, speaking of which, have you gathered any more intel about the Erudite plans?"

"Today they were in a meeting talking about dates and times of something important, but I don't know what it was. I wrote down the dates and times anyways and I put it in the folder I have for our next meeting." explains Christina.

I sigh and nod. Soon Christina finishes with my hair and makeup and it is time for me to put my dress on. Christina takes it out of the bag and I almost start tearing up when I see it. It is perfect. The whole dress is a dark blue material and the top is strapless and covered with black lace. The bottom part flows down from the waist to knee length. I can't believe that Christina found this dress for me for tonight. I hug her tightly and she hugs back just as tight. I put the dress on and admire myself in the mirror before it's time to leave.

Christina hugs me again and then hands me an envelope. She smiles slyly as I open it and read.

_Meet me at our special place. I'll be waiting _

_-T_

I grin back at her and practically fly out the door, not wanting to wait another second to see, and kiss Tobias. Just as I turn the corner leading into the pit a fist comes out of nowhere and hits me hard on the side of my head. I don't know how I stay conscious, but even with black covering most of my vision I swing out with my elbow as hard as I can and hear a grunt upon its impact. They whisper a curse and the next thing I know my feet are swept out from underneath me and my head hits the wall on the way down. All I can see is darkness and I am gone.


	4. Chapter 4

Tobias POV

I am waiting at the bottom of the chasm thinking about Tris. The past month has been my best time here in dauntless. Sure I had good moments before Tris came, but she brings such a light into everything; I don't know what I would do without her. I know I don't deserve her, but I want to try.

Tonight I am planning on telling her I love her for the first time. I look down at my hand, in it is a necklace with a heart and a small "4" charm attached. I know Tris isn't one for jewelry, but I thought she would appreciate the sentiment.

I wonder where Tris is now, Christina promised me she would have her ready by 7 so we could catch the train at 7:30. I want to take Tris back to the Ferris wheel, to tell her I love her there. That's where I first let myself acknowledge that I liked her, so it feels right.

I look at my watch it says 7:15. If I wait much longer we'll miss the train. I decide to head to Christina's to see if Tris is still there.

When I get to her door I knock loudly and shout, "Christina, what's going on, aren't you done yet?"

Christina answers the door after a second and looks surprised to see me. "What's up Four?" she asks.

"What do you mean, what's up? Where is Tris?" I nearly shout back, she is trying my patience now.

"Isn't she with you? I gave her your note and she left around 20 minutes ago." Christina responds.

"Don't play with me Christina" I growl at her.

She puts up her hands in defense and says, "I wouldn't dare, I'm being serious. Didn't Tris ever make it to your date?"

I don't respond to Christina, I just turn around and practically run back to Tris and I's apartment, hoping that for some reason she mistook my clue for there and is waiting for me. I almost wouldn't mind her anger at having to wait for me if it means what I am thinking isn't true.

I get to the apartment and throw open the door only to find it empty, just the way I left it a couple hours ago. I am in full panic mode now. Where could she have gone? What if the leaders found out she is divergent? Would they kill her like they killed so many others?

I turn around intending on going to the chasm to see for myself, when I run into someone.

"Ow, jeesh Four" Christina mumbles rubbing her foot that I stepped on.

Ignoring her I start towards the door again only to be stopped by Zeke at the doorway.

"What's this?" I ask, "Let me through." I try to shove Zeke out of the way, but he stands firm.

"No, we are going to find her Four, but we need a plan, we don't need you running around crazy and beating someone to a pulp." Zeke looks at me levelly and I know he is right.

I sag back against the wall, feeling extremely tired as the initial adrenaline rush wears off. "So what now?" I ask.

"Now we are all going to meet at Uriah and I's place to form an action plan." States Zeke.

I look up at him, wondering when he got so smart and rational; normally he's all dauntless, action before thought. He turns and gestures for us to follow him.

I get up and follow him down the hall to his apartment. When we enter I am surprised to see everyone is already there, looking worried. As I take a seat on the couch and look around I realize Tris is really lucky to have such a great group of friends looking out for her.

Christina is the first to speak, "Okay so we know that Tris left my apartment a little before 7 and she never made it to her date with Four. That means that whatever happened to her occurred at least 30 minutes ago."

"That's a long time. She could be anywhere" interjects Shauna.

I give her a look that is half anger, half pleading with her to stop. She looks away.

"I think we should start by trying to find the last place that she was" says Will.

"Yeah, and how do you suggest we do that?" Uriah chimes in.

Will replies, "Easy, we go to the control room and track her movements after she left our apartment."

I smack myself on the forehead. Why didn't I think of that sooner? I get up and Will, Christina and Zeke follow me to the control room.

It doesn't take long for me to find the footage I am looking for. I see Tris leave Christina's apartment and I almost smile at the spring in her step. That is until I see someone waiting for her around the corner. I want to scream a warning to Tris, as if I could stop what's already happened, but I just watch in horror as she is taken by surprise. Her attacker hits her on the side of the head.

It's a miracle she doesn't get knocked out right away, but she swings her elbow up and hits the person solidly in the gut. Tris is a fighter. Unfortunately, her attacker isn't injured too badly and manages to take her legs out from under her. She falls and on the way down her head hits the wall and then viciously slams into the ground. I cringe, thinking about the pain she must be in now wherever she is. We have to find her.

I look over and see Christina with tears in her eyes and Will comforting her. Zeke looks like he is going to be sick and when his eyes meet mine I see how much he cares for her too and I know we will all fight to get her back.

I turn back to the screen watching as Tris' attacker picks her up and carries her down the hallway, past the doors leading to the pit and around a corner. I know that area doesn't have a camera so I try desperately to pick up an image of them emerging somewhere else, but after 20 minutes it seems like a lost cause.

"We should head back to the apartment and let the others know. Then we can come up with a plan for everyone to help find her."

Zeke's words break through my panicked haze and while I don't want to leave the computers I see the wisdom in what he is saying. Maybe there is more we can do to find her and I don't want to waste another second.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I kinda forgot to put one of these on the first four chapters, I am a newbie at this. I hope you are enjoying the story. Please Read & Review. I could use some encouragement or even some criticism. Let me know what you like or don't like. Thanks :) **

**Oh and although this seems obvious I will say. I DO NOT own divergent or the characters. Just my original story ideas. **

Tris POV

The first thing I register when the darkness leaves me is more darkness. I can't see anything. I try to stand up, but the movement is met with excruciating pain. The pain seems to be radiating from several spots, but the most severe is from my head. I lift my hand up and feel a thick, sticky substance. I assume it is blood, even though I can't see it.

Ignoring the throbbing in my head I slowly move the parts of my body to assess the damage. It seems that whoever left me here decided to give me a good beating first. It hurts to breath, and I assume I have a cracked rib or two. My right wrist feels like it's broken, and I have the general ache I learned to deal with during initiation. Overall, I'm lucky I am still alive, since I assumed that they were just going to kill me for being divergent.

I try to stand again, slowly, aware of all my sore spots. Before I can get fully upright my head hits something and I reach up to realize it's the ceiling. I begin to crouch/walk until I get to one wall and then another. I'm in a very small space maybe 3 feet each way and 5 feet tall. Even in the darkness it feels confining.

Before I can panic, I start to take slow deep breaths. I smile at myself, maybe all those simulations during training have paid off. Now if only I could find a way out of here. I want to search for a door, but moving around has made my head throb more and I feel like I want to throw up. I can't help but want to lie down and fall asleep.

As I drift off, my thoughts are of Tobias. I know by now he must know that something has happened and he will be searching for me. I only hope he finds me before whoever put me here comes back to finish the job.

Tobias POV

I look at the clock. It is 8:30am; it's been over 12 hours since anyone has seen Tris, and so far our plan to find her is not going well. After we met again last night, we decided that Will and I would take turns monitoring the camera feeds and searching old footage for any sign of where Tris is. Christina and Marlene are going around asking anyone if they've seen Tris. Uriah is using his leader-in-training status to spy on the leaders, and see if there is anything about Tris in their records. While Zeke and Shauna start searching all the areas not covered by cameras. So far no one has turned up any information.

Will walks into the control room carrying two large cups of coffee. I take mine gratefully and update him on what areas I've already looked through and where he should start. I decide to head back to the apartment to shower before I meet Zeke and Shauna for some searching. Everyone keeps trying to tell me to sleep, but I know that I won't be able to, until we find her.

When I open the apartment door, I look down and notice a crumpled up sheet of paper. I didn't notice it there last night. I reach down with shaky hands to pick it up and read.

_ She didn't deserve #1 and you don't deserve her._

My whole body is trembling now, with both anger and fear; anger, because Tris deserved #1 more than any other initiate and she earned it! Fear, because we haven't been able to find her yet and whoever wrote this has her.

I immediately turn around and march off to find Zeke. I find him in a small side corridor checking empty apartments. He stops when he sees me, "Did something happen? You look like you wanna kill someone."

Instead of answering him I just shove the note in his hands and lean against the wall. He reads it and squeezes my shoulder, "Listen man, we are going to find her."

"We have to, or I don't know how I'll go on." I reply.

He gives my shoulder another squeeze and we start searching the remaining apartments in the corridor.

...

It's been 3 days since Tris went missing. Two more notes have turned up for me. We tried to find out who keeps leaving them, but they are never left in the same place and nowhere in the direct line of the cameras.

The last note, found just one hour ago, said to hurry up, because her time is running out. After reading it, I feel such an overwhelming sense of desperation and urgency that my hands begin to shake. I think everyone else feels the same, because our search had slowed down some over the last day, but now everyone is out searching every nook and cranny in dauntless.

Uriah hasn't gathered any information from the leaders that would suggest they had anything to do with this, so we have moved our focus from them to someone who might have a personal grudge. Obviously since the first note talked about the ranks, and the only initiate who was really pissed about Tris' rank was Peter, he's been our main focus. Unfortunately, even with someone following him around for the past two days, we haven't seen any clues to where Tris could be.

With every day that has passed, I have become more angry, more unstable. Even my friends don't want to be around me. I see Zeke shoot me worried glances like I might explode at any second.

"UGH!" I shout at the computer screen. Will jumps a little in his chair next to me and fires me a look. I just walk over to the map of dauntless we have laid out to plot all the places we know Tris hasn't been, and cross out another corridor. We at least know Tris hasn't left dauntless, because all the exits are fully covered with cameras.

It makes it even more frustrating, knowing that she is somewhere in the compound, and not being able to find her.

I flip to another area and scroll back the tape to the night Tris went missing. I begin watching the screen letting my thoughts wander to all the time I have spent with Tris, wondering if I'll ever get to see her beautiful face again. Then I see it.

It is dark and I can't see her face, but there is clearly someone carrying another person just 10 minutes after the time Tris was attacked. I desperately try to find a different view to see more, but there is no other camera in that area. Then they are gone.

I rewind the footage slowly, watching carefully as the person carrying Tris sidesteps down and through what must be a doorway. I check the map, but my eyes must be playing tricks on me as revenge for not sleeping, because even after double checking the right corridor from the video, I can't find the doorway they went through.

I call Will over and show him the video and the map. "I'm going to go find the others and start searching that hallway." I tell him. "You stay here and see if you can find any better views that might indicate where the door is." With that, I run out of room to find Zeke and Christina.


	6. Chapter 6

Tobias POV

I find Zeke, Shauna and Christina heading into the cafeteria. They see me and stop, waiting for me to catch up.

"We found where they took her." I whisper urgently to them. I hand Zeke and Shauna communication devices. "Go find Uriah and Marlene and meet us in the Pit near the chasm." They nod and we all break apart.

"Where are we going?" Christina asks me.

"Back to the control room. I want to see if Will found out anything more about exactly where she is."

Christina follows me without question. When we arrive at the control room, Will motions us over to the desk. "This is the corridor shown on the video. From this angle, I believe the door is about 5 feet from the end of the hall. It's a dead end. I don't think this part of dauntless is in use anymore." Will explains as he gestures to the map.

"That makes sense." Christina replies. "Any idea what is down there?"

"No. So be careful." Will replies.

Will gives us directions to the hallway from the Pit and we leave to meet up with the others. All my thoughts are on Tris, and what state she will be in when we find her. In my mind I try to send her a message that we are coming for her.

Tris POV

I have no way of telling time in this black pit. All I know is that the ache in my head has dulled to a throb and is now accompanied by an ache in my gut. There is no food or water here. My lips are cracked and I don't know if I could speak if I tried. The second time I woke up I tried screaming for help. I screamed for what seemed like hours, but no one came. I am beginning to think no one will ever come.

I spent forever crawling around looking for a way out. I think I found the door, but getting it open is another story altogether. It doesn't seem to have a knob, or a latch, it's just flat. I kicked at it as best I could, but the only result of that was more pain for my ribs and head. My only hope is that someone finds me, and if I am being honest, I have very little hope of that.

Now, I lay curled up on the floor willing sleep to come to me, but I have slept too much. My body doesn't want to ignore the pain anymore. Instead I try to distract myself with memories. I think about all the good times Tobias and I have shared. I think of the ferris wheel, of him saving me from Peter, Drew and Al at the chasm and at his room afterwards. I think of the feeling of his hand in mine and the electricity from just that small connection. Oh how I wish I could feel that just once more; feel his hand in mine and his lips on my lips.

My eyes start to sting, and I know that if my body could produce tears, I would be crying right now. I shift my thoughts to my friends. I remember meeting Christina for the first time and all the times we have laughed together. Laughing reminds me of Uriah, the first person in dauntless to introduce me to everything dauntless had to offer. I remember Zeke's crazy parties and his brotherly companionship. My last thoughts before I drift into sleep are of my friends finding me. I think, "Come on guys, I'm waiting for you, please find me."

Tobias POV

By the time we find the door in question my nerves are raw. I'm trying hard, to control the trembling that is beginning to take over my whole body. Zeke senses my anxiety and quickly takes control. Normally I would be offended, but in this case I just give him a nod and listen to his commands.

"Everybody stay close, and be quiet. We don't want to alert anyone that could still be in here," Zeke reminds us.

"Not to mention, the Leaders don't like finding people in the old Dauntless corridors," chimes Uriah. "It'd be best to do this quickly."

We quickly discover that this could take much longer than we hoped. Once we are through the door there are steps leading down and then multiple branches of hallways. It is very dark down here, and I can't see the end of the hallways. Zeke decides it would be better to search in pairs; me with Christina, Zeke with Shauna and Uriah with Lynn. This will allow us to cover the most ground quickly and still have one another's backs. Christina and I take the middle one and start making our way down. There are doors on both sides of the hall and checking each one takes time. We stay in contact with the others for the first 20 minutes, but the communications soon become spotty and then nothing.

The whole thing becomes frustrating fast and after 10 doors my mind is reeling with all the negative possibilities. I just want to see Tris again. To hold her in my arms, and feel her lips against mine.

We reach the end of the hall and I am disappointed when I see that it branches off into two more hallways. This could take forever. Just as I am about to suggest that Christina go back to the opening to try to radio Will, I hear footsteps. I shoot Christina a glance to see her already crouched in a doorway. I crouch just around the corner, prepared for anything.

What I was not prepared for is an out of breath, red-eyed Shauna. My heart immediately sinks through the floor. "We…f-found her. Looks…bad. Zeke….infirmary." she stutters out.

That's all I need to hear, and my feet are flying. Taking me to the infirmary. Taking me to Tris.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: As you may have noticed I don't put many of these. I just had to say thanks to everyone who have made this story a favorite or followed it. It provides a lot of encouragement to keep writing. Also thank you so much to my 2 guest reviewers! :) **

**Oh and I do NOT own divergent.**

**Enjoy!**

Tobias POV

I arrive at the infirmary after what feels like hours, though I know it was only a matter of minutes, only to be stopped by a grim looking Zeke at the entrance. He puts a hand on my shoulder, which I try to shrug off, but his hold is firm.

"They're checking her out now, we have to wait." He states.

"Wait!? You've got to be kidding me! I'm going to see her now!" I shout at him as I storm into the infirmary waiting area. "Where is Tris Prior?" I question the first person I see. It's a nurse who gives me a not so kind look, and tells me to have a seat unless I want to be thrown out.

I want to scream at her too, but think twice of it as she walks away and Zeke's hand on my shoulder returns. I shrug it off again, not wanting contact with anyone but Tris right now. I turn to see his face, solemn and remorseful. I give him a grateful look and sink into one of the uncomfortable, black plastic chairs. He sinks down beside me.

"Did she say anything?" I ask him tentatively.

"She was unconscious when we found her, but on the way here I think she was trying to say something…Tobes…or something like that." He replies.

My heart jumps a little, knowing that she was probably trying to say my name, though Zeke obviously doesn't know that. "How did she look?"

"Pretty beat up, man," he pauses before continuing. "It looked like she was just left there with no food or water or anything."

I let my head fall into my hands. Now that the feat of searching for her is over, I realize how exhausted and hungry I am. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be though, she was starving in there and so am I.

I look up when the doors open and see Christina, Uriah, Marlene, and Shauna walk in. Shauna's eyes are still red-rimmed, but she seems to have calmed down a little. Uriah catches Zeke's eye and motions for him to follow him into the hall. Zeke gets up and Christina takes his place next to me. My thoughts are occupied by Uriah and Zeke and I don't catch watch Christina says to me. It's not until I hear Tris' name that I break out of the zone.

"You are here for Tris Prior, correct?" asks a short, blond haired nurse, who reminds me very much of Tris,.

Christina finds her voice first and responds, "Yes, we are. Do you have news?"

"Yes, she is stable and you will be able to see her soon. Although I must warn you that she will probably be incoherent for the next few hours. We had to give her some pain medication and she was severely dehydrated."

"Okay, thank you, how long until we can see her?" Christina asks again.

"It should only be a few more minutes, while the doctor finishes." The nurse gives us a friendly smile and retreats back to the area where the patients are kept.

My mind is reeling. Zeke must have been right about the food and water. I wonder what else she went through if she needed the pain medication. I am not really registering anything until Zeke sits down on the other side of me again. Christina fills Zeke and Uriah in on what the nurse just told us.

As soon as Christina is finished, a doctor comes out and says that we can come back one at a time. I get up first and follow her back without hesitation, knowing the others would agree. My heart is pounding when we reach Tris' door. I am almost too afraid of what I will see on the other side, that only my concern for her well-being pushes me through the door. What I see does little to calm me. Tris is laying on a bed, looking extremely pale, and small, with her usual large presence, extinguished.

I cross the room in two large strides and take her unencumbered hand in mine. It scares me that there is no spark. No electricity at the contact. I push those thoughts away as I take the chance to really look her over. Her face looks sallow, sunken in. Her skin is dry and there are bruises covering the right side of her face. Her wrist is in a cast and there is a large bandage covering one side of her head. I understand now why the pain medication was needed, and my anger flairs again at whoever left her in that room, apparently to die. They weren't satisfied with just kidnapping her, they had to give her a beating too.

Thankfully there is a chair right next to the bed, because at that moment my legs decide to give out and I slump into it. I am still sitting there staring at her when I hear the door open, and someone walks in.

"Has she woken up?" a soft voice asks.

I look up to see Christina staring at Tris as if she were an alien. "No, not yet." I reply.

"She looks so…" she pauses, as she lifts her hands to her face, "…so small."

I just nod my head. In the same moment I feel a slight pressure on my fingers holding Tris' hand. Her eyelids flutter and there is a small croaking. I have to lean in to catch her words, "who…you calling…small."

Ha. I let out a little laugh, so like Tris, she doesn't want anyone to see her as weak or small, even after all this. I repeat to Christina what she said, but then turn all my attention completely to Tris as she starts to become more coherent.

Tris POV

I begin to hear sounds around me and I am confused. Where am I? Why does my head feel so foggy?

I try to focus on more concrete things, like the feel of someone holding my hand; it feels nice, warm. I was so cold before. I shift my focus to the voices I hear. Christina and Tobias! I hear Christina call me small and I urgently try to rebuff her comment. My words come out scratchy and low. "who…you calling…small."

Tobias chuckles, just a little, even in his laugh I hear tension. I wonder again, where I am. I start to open my eyes, only to clamp them shut again as the brightness of my environment blinds me. Tobias must notice my actions, because I can tell that he is leaning in closer as he starts to ramble, "Tris, what is it? What's wrong?"

I open my mouth to speak, but my throat is so dry I start to cough instead. My coughing fit causes an explosion of pain throughout the rest of my body and I will myself to stop coughing. A flash of memories surge up in me, mainly one memory, darkness and pain.

I squeeze Tobias' hand a little tighter before easing my eyes open a little. The light hurts, but the pain is instantly worth the price, as I am met with the site of Tobias' face. He is here, this is not a dream. He smiles a little at me. His smile is full of concern and relief; the two emotions so conflicting yet so equally apparent. I smile back.

Christina must have finally snapped out of her shock, because I hear her squeal, "Triisssss! We were so worried!" and I feel her wrap her arms cautiously around my shoulders. I turn my head and give her a grateful smile when she stands back up.

I can tell they are both brewing with questions for me, but everything is hurting again and my mind is pulling me back into the darkness of sleep. The last thing I hear before I am completely gone is Tobias whisper, "I love you, Tris.

...

The next time I wake up I am immediately aware of how much clearer my head feels. I can remember all of my time in that horrible place, granted, I would gladly forget that part. I also remember Tobias' face and Christina's exclamation of them being worried. It makes me wonder how long I was actually locked up. It seemed like forever.

I open my eyes and note, appreciatively, that someone has dimmed the lights in my room. I turn my head to the right and see Uriah sleeping on the chair in the corner. His mouth hanging open and in typical Uriah fashion, he is snoring quite loudly. Just then, he snorts and wakes himself up. He looks around lazily until he sees that I am awake. You wouldn't even know he had just woken up by how quickly he jumps up from the chair and comes by my side, taking my hand in his.

"How are you feeling?" he asks in a quiet, very unlike Uriah voice.

"Better, I think." I croak out. Apparently no one has fixed the dryness of my throat.

"Here" he says, handing me a cup with some ice cubes in it, "The doctor said you could suck on those when you woke up. Should help your throat."

"Thanks" I reply, taking the cup and slipping an ice cube into my mouth, "mmmm" it feels good on my dry throat. We sit there for 10 minutes or so; me enjoying my ice, and him staring at me very uncomfortably. When my throat feels a little better I decide to try to get some of my questions answered. "Where's Four?"

"Well….eerrh, he got a summons from Max a little while ago that he couldn't ignore." Uriah reluctantly divulges.

"Oh" is all I manage to get out. My mind is flying through all the possible reasons that Max would want to see Tobias. I decide to move on to my next pressing concern. "So, who put me…" I pause before continuing, "You know." I finish.

"We were hoping you could tell us actually." Uriah says surprised.

I just shake my head, feeling sick all of a sudden and not really wanting to think about anything anymore. Whoever took me is still out there and I have no idea why or what they wanted with me. Except to kill me of course, but why?

I close my eyes and fall asleep again, only to be overcome with dreams of the black room.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: I got a lot of encouragement after I posted the last chapter, thanks everyone! **

**To the reviewer who asked me to post the whole story, I wish I could, but I am still in the process of writing it. I am posting chapters as fast as I can write them and get them back from my beta reader. I do know where I want to take the story so I will be able to continue to update regularly.**

**Enjoy!**

Tobias POV

I am beyond frustrated right now. Max summoned me to his office 30 minutes ago to talk and I have been sitting here waiting. All I want right now is to be with Tris. She must have woken up again, and I was not the one to be there for her, to answer the questions she must have. Finally Max walks in and sits down across from me at his desk.

"So, I want to offer you a second chance at being a leader." Max says.

I immediately start to shake my head, but he speaks again. "Please, hear me out, things are changing and I know you want to be a part of that change."

I am hesitant, but he has caught my interest. "What kind of change?"

"Some of us want Dauntless to go back to the old ideals, the ideals held in our original constitution. We want to put the cruelty and viciousness of current times to rest. There are others though, who are set in our ways and firmly believe going back would be cowardly." He pauses and I assess what he is saying. Does he really believe all this or is he feeding me a line. "I realize you have no reason to believe what I am telling you, but I want to warn you, war is coming. A war I want no part in other than to protect the innocent. I would like you to join us."

I look at him, and decide not to dismiss him outright, but I also decide not accept what he says without some thought. "I can't give you an answer right now, but I would like some time to think." I tell him.

"Of course, take some time, but remember that with war at the front door, none of us have much time," he says, as he spins around in his chair.

I nod and get up to leave. Before I make it one step he turns back toward the desk and speaks again. "By the way, how is Tris doing? I heard someone took her and threw her in one of the old dauntless chambers."

I pitch him a look trying to gauge the emotions on his face. He looks calm, but guarded.

"She is healing and I would like to get back to her." I state flatly.

"Of course." He replies and gestures for me to leave.

As I walk out of his office, thoughts are swirling in my mind. I am worried about Tris and her recovery, but this new admission from Max about "a coming war", has me anxious. We knew this already, but I can feel the tension in the air of dauntless as I walk, and I have a feeling that more people know about it, than are letting on. It makes me wary of everyone, not that I was so open before. We need to find out what Erudite and the Dauntless leaders are planning, and we need to do so fast.

All thoughts of war leave my mind as I enter the infirmary. Tris is the only thing I can think about, first what state I'll find her in now, and second, her safety from here on out. What I don't expect to find, is all of our friends crowded into her room, laughing at something Uriah did or said, as he is bright red in the face. Tris looks almost whole again with a bright smile on her face, but when our eyes meet, I see the pain deep within them. I know she must be trying to push it back, but we know each other too well for her to hide it from me. It is clear from the protective hand Christina has on Tris' shoulder that she is also aware of how Tris is really feeling.

I immediately cross the room and take Tris' outstretched hand in mine. Our eyes have not left each other since I entered the room. Our very intimate moment is interrupted by a loud cough from Zeke and I realize that everyone has stopped laughing and is staring at us. I can feel my face heating up, but the look Tris gives me, tells me that right now she doesn't care. Instead I just turn to Zeke, "What?"

"Glad you could finally join us. What took you so long?" His voice is joking, but his eyes are serious.

"Well, ummm.." I know I should tell them about my conversation with Max, but something in me wants to talk to Tris alone first. "Can I have a minute alone with Tris please?" I ask.

Everyone nods and starts to leave, Zeke gives me a questioning look as he walks out and it makes me feel a little guilty. After all, we are all in this together, but I really just want a moment alone with Tris.

As soon as the door closes behind them, Tris pulls me closer, "What's wrong? What happened with Max?"

I sigh I hadn't wanted her to be worried about my meeting, "Who told you?"

"Uriah, now stop avoiding the question." she says blatantly. She knows how I like to avoid questions, but she is right, this is something we need to talk about sooner, rather than later. Not now though.

"We'll talk about it later. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." Her voice is flush and emotionless, but I can tell there is more to how she is feeling. "Please tell me about your meeting. I can tell it was something important."

"You're not going to give this up are you?"

"Nope" she smiles a little at me.

"Ok, but is it ok if I call the others back in? I don't feel like explaining it all twice."

"Kiss me first," she whispers, so quietly I almost don't even hear her. She looks down at her lap sheepishly, ashamed.

I take her chin in my fingers, delicately, and lift her head so she is looking at me. "Always" I whisper back before touching my lips to hers. Softly at first, tenderly, then with more force as we both give into the need.

Tris POV

His lips touch mine, lovingly at first, cautiously it seems, he probably doesn't want to hurt me. But I need more, so I deepen the kiss. Pressing my lips to his more heavily, feeling the need to reassure myself in this way, that I am ok, and that everything will be fine. My emotions surge and I will myself not to cry, I don't cry. Tears start falling of their own volition and Tobias stops kissing me. He gently wipes the tears away and murmurs to me.

"It's ok, you're safe now, I'm here."

I nod my head and bury my head in his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart. It calms me and I stop crying. Now I just feel silly.

"I'm sorry."

He shakes his head, "Don't be, I love you."

"I love you too, Tobias." I give him another lingering kiss and pull away reluctantly. "Should we call the others back?"

"Do we have to?" Tobias whines, pathetically. I laugh, he never whines.

"Yes."

He gets up and leaves quickly to get our friends back. They all walk in and Uriah grins at me like an idiot.

"Did you two have fun in here?" he asks

My face heats up and my friends laugh at my discomfort.

Tobias interrupts the happy mood when he says solemnly, "We have some things we need to discuss, but I'm not sure the infirmary is the best place to discuss them."

As if to prove his point a nurse walks in the room at that exact moment. She takes one look around the room, "You all can't be in here; she needs her rest." I open my mouth to protest, but Tobias places his hand on my arm.

"We'll see you all in the morning." Tobias says. His voice allows no argument and no one offers any. Everyone comes up to me and gives me small hugs. I say goodnight to everyone and whisper in Christina's ear.

"Will you bring me some clothes in the morning?" She nods smiling and leaves.

The nurse has busied herself checking some monitors I'm hooked up to, and she asks, "How's the pain?"

I shrug, "Manageable."

Tobias frowns, "If you need something, it's ok Tris."

"I want a clear head more than I want the pain to go away." I tell him.

The nurse nods but adds, "If you decide later, you need something just press this button." She hands me a remote.

"When will I be able to get out of here?" I ask her. I am already sick of this place and it's only been a day since I woke up.

"Probably tomorrow, your physical injuries aren't so bad; you just need to make sure to get the nourishment you need."

Good, I think to myself. I smile at her as she turns to leave the room. Tobias comes to sit with me on the bed. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and I rest my head against his chest.

"You'll stay with me all night, right?" I question, looking up at him.

"Of course, I don't think I could leave you again if you wanted me to." He smirks at me, and I smile back.

I lean heavily against him, letting his warmth seep into me as I listen to his heartbeat, and fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: I got a lot of support after my last update so thank you everyone! My next update will be either later today or tomorrow, I am just waiting on getting the chapter back from my beta reader and I have 2 more chapters written. :) I've been really motivated by all the support. **

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own divergent or anything in it.  
**

**Enjoy! :)**

Chapter 9

Tris POV

When I wake up I am aware that it is very late in the day already, but I finally feel well rested. I am also aware that Tobias is not with me on the bed anymore. I open my eyes and see him standing by the door talking quietly with Christina. She sees that I am awake first, and crosses the room to me.

"How are you feeling?" she asks placing a bag, that I hope contains my clothes, on the bed by my feet.

"Much better!" I smile at her, and it's true, I do feel much better than I did yesterday.

Tobias chuckles from his place behind Christina and raises his eyebrows at me. I'm normally not this chipper right when I wake up.

"Well you look better. Let's get you in these clothes and break you out of here. What do you say?" Christina asks gleefully.

"Hell yes!" I respond enthusiastically.

"I'll go find the doctor." Tobias says as he slips out the door.

Within minutes a doctor enters my room followed by Tobias and Zeke. "How are you feeling today Ms. Prior?" He asks.

"Much better."

"Good, how's the pain in your head and ribs?"

"It's there but more just annoying aches than real pain." I admit.

"That's good. Now you need to make sure to get lots of rest over the next few days, make sure you eat small meals from this list first. Your body needs lots of nutrients."

I nod my head and take the papers he hands me.

20 minutes later we've finally made it back to Tobias and I's apartment and everyone is crammed into our small living room. I am sitting on Tobias' lap watching Zeke and Uriah argue about the best way for us to get more information from Max. Tobias told us what Max asked of him, and what he told him about the coming war. None of us were really surprised about that, but we were all surprised Max was concerned about it. He never seemed cruel like Eric, but he was never nice either. What surprises me even more is that I believe Max. I think dauntless hardens people, makes them seem less approachable than if they were in other factions.

"I think we should take a direct approach." I speak up. Zeke and Uriah stop arguing and look at me. Everyone has surprised looks on their faces, because this is the first time I have said anything since we began this discussion. "I think Four should accept the position and work with Max. He won't be in any more danger there anywhere else, but we could learn valuable information. Plus I trust what Max is telling us."

Now everyone is looking at me like I am crazy. Maybe I am crazy to trust one of the dauntless leaders, but something in my gut says this is right, and I always trust my gut.

Shockingly Marlene is the first to find her voice. "I agree with Tris. This is the best opportunity we've had in a month. We need to take it, because we probably don't have a lot of time left."

Slowly the others start to nod their heads, but Tobias stays quiet and still behind me. I look up at him questioningly. He looks down at me and his eyes are thoughtful. I know his old instinct doesn't want to trust Max, but I also know he wants to trust my judgment. I wonder who will win in his internal struggle, his old self, or the self he has become with me.

"Ok" he says slowly. "I'll do it."

…

It's been 2 weeks since Tobias accepted Max's offer and things are slowly getting back to normal. I've been working on regaining my strength slowly. My physical injuries are almost completely healed, with the exception of my wrist, but it's been a frustratingly slow process. At first Tobias was helping, which resulted in our first fight in a long time. He thought I was pushing myself too hard; I think he is just afraid for me to get hurt again. Since our fight Uriah and Christina have been working with me.

In the past 2 weeks Tobias has learned a few interesting things. We now know that Erudite plans to attack Abnegation in 3 days, and that the "tracking serum" we were injected with during my initiation is actually a simulation serum. They are intending on controlling us, as a dauntless army to force the Abnegation to comply. It was sickening to learn about that part of their plan.

Now, our main goal has been stopping the simulation, but without access to Erudite we have no way of knowing how to do that. Tobias reckons he can stop it once it starts if he can find the computer they are running the program from.

There are still too many unanswered questions lingering though. The main one that is constantly on Tobias' mind and mine, is who kidnapped me and why? We both know that if they knew I was divergent, they wouldn't have hesitated to kill me. That's Tobias' reasoning for his belief that it was Peter, but I can't figure out what his motive would be. I mean sure he hates me, but we were working together just fine before it happened.

I know Tobias is just worried. Although I have control over my physical healing, the attack left its toll on me emotionally. I still don't like sleeping with all the lights off. The first night we were home I fell asleep before Tobias and woke up in a panic to a completely dark room. It took me a while, but I finally told Tobias why. Since then he has been careful to leave a light on in the room at all times. New nightmares have also joined those from initiation, but I deal with them as just a part of life now.

Today is my first day back at work since the attack and I wake up much earlier than usual.

"Good morning" Tobias mumbles from the bed beside me.

"Morning."

"Do you have to go back to work today?"

"You know I do. People are starting to talk."

"I know; I just worry about you being alone with Peter all day."

"I'll be fine." I grumble. "It's not like we are going to be doing anything dangerous, we won't even leave the compound today, just reports and such."

"Fine."

I roll my eyes, a little annoyed with his continuing overprotectiveness. As I start to get out of bed I feel his hand on my arm. He pulls me gently back to him. Our lips meet, and I feel our previous tension melt away. We continue like that for a little while, before he releases me and sighs.

I steal one final kiss, before I get up and start to get ready for my first day back.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Sorry I made you wait a little longer, but this is a longer chapter than normal. **

**Enjoy!**

Tris POV

I walk into work 15 minutes early and I am surprised to find Peter talking with Max and another dauntless leader.

"Hello, Tris." Max greets me

"Hey Tris! I didn't know you were coming back to work today" Peter exclaims.

"Yeah, I've been sitting around doing nothing for long enough, thought I might as well catch up on the paperwork around here." I shrug. I turn to make my way to my desk, but Max stops me.

"Tris, if you're feeling up to it, we need you and Peter to go to Abnegation today."

"Well, I suppose, what for?" I question him, surprised Tobias didn't mention anything about Abnegation at our group meeting last night.

"Just a routine progress report on the conditions of the factionless in that area of the city." Max answers.

"Okay. I guess that won't be a problem."

Max smiles as he responds, "Great, you guys are going to leave on the train at noon. Pack a bag you'll be spending the night."

I decide to find Tobias right away to tell him the change of plans. I know that he won't be happy with me leaving the compound, but this may be the opportunity we were looking for to warn Abnegation. I find him at work in the control room.

I knock on the door and hear a voice call out. "Come in."

It's Will, he's sitting at the main computer going through files. "Oh, hey Tris, I thought you were starting work again today."

"I am. I just need to talk to Four for a minute."

"Sure no problem, he's in back."

"Thanks." I smile at him and make my way to the back office.

"Hey." I say as I enter the office. Tobias looks up from the computer screen with a surprised look on his face.

"Hi. I thought you were at work."

"Well, I was and then I got some interesting news and well..." I pause, not sure if telling him face to face is such a good idea anymore, maybe a note would have been better. But since I am here now, and I know he would likely come after me if he found the note later, I decide to just tell him. "..I am going to Abnegation today for a meeting and will be spending the night." I spit out.

"You're what?!" he throws back.

"You heard me." I state flatly. His posture has already changed to tense and rigid, as has his facial expression. I DO NOT like where this is heading.

"You are NOT going!" He yells. At least he yelled, his calm-quiet is scary, this I can handle.

"Yes I am. I already told them I could go. Besides this is a good thing. Now I can warn the Abnegation what is coming and a few days before it happens." I reply calmly but firmly.

"You told who you could?"

"Max, Peter, and another dauntless leader."

"Seriously have you lost your mind!" his voice is getting louder. Will bursts into the room and looks around.

"Is everything ok in here? I heard shouting."

"Everything's fine." I tell him. Tobias just shoots him his instructor death glare, and Will quickly leaves. No one likes to be around Tobias when he is in one of his moods.

I immediately start talking to halt anything Tobias might say next. "I am leaving at noon and I'll be home tomorrow around lunch." And with that, I turn and leave; leaving a very tense and angry Tobias standing in the office behind me. He doesn't follow me out.

I head straight for our apartment and start packing a small backpack with a change of clothes and all my overnight essentials. I look around the room before I leave and decide to grab one of Tobias' t-shirts to sleep in. I am not looking forward to spending the night apart from him. Especially not after the way we are apparently leaving things.

Then I hear the door open. I do not want another fight right now, but I realize there is nowhere to go. I take a deep breath, hoping to get the first word in the matter, but when he walks into the room, the look on his face is more defeated than angry.

"I'm sorry" he sighs. "I know you hate me worrying like this, but I can't help it ok. I don't know what I would do if I lost you."

His admission is a surprise to me. I knew the whole ordeal scared him, but he normally doesn't show those feelings, not even to me.

"It's ok. I just want to get it over with so I can be back with you." I say "I'll miss sleeping in your arms tonight."

"Not as much as I'll miss having you there" he argues.

I smile seductively at him. I know exactly how I want to pass the morning and it doesn't involve any more words. He catches my drift and leans in closer our faces only inches away from each other.

"Is this what you want?" he asks as he kisses me slowly.

I just nod once and return his kiss. We pass the next few hours pleasantly; kissing, talking and just laying together. All too soon, it is time for me to head to the train.

"Make sure you let the others know." I tell Tobias.

"I will. Be safe." He kisses me gently on the lips and then on my forehead, while holding me tightly within his embrace. I don't want to leave but I need to hurry or I'll miss the train.

"I'll be back soon. I love you, Tobias."

"I love you too, Tris.

...

The meetings go on until around 8, which is well past dinner. They were extremely boring, mainly talks about the locations the factionless have inhabited and their numbers. Apparently the factionless population is growing rapidly and they are starting to move about the city more. This surprises me, I always thought that they would dwindle, not grow. However, after Dauntless initiation, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised.

My parents leave the meeting hall before me, saying they want to prepare me dinner. I happily agree, but I have to stay and finish up the reports with Peter first.

"I can finish this up if you want to head to your parents." Peter tells me. "I know you don't get to see them often."

I smile gratefully, "That would be nice. Thank you."

"Yup, no problem. Have a good night." He waves to me as I leave.

I am walking out of the meeting hall, thinking about how nice it was of Peter to offer to do the work. I don't know why Tobias is so insistent that he is still bad; so far, us working together has been working out really well. I sigh to myself and turn towards my old house. I am too distracted with looking down at my feet, instead of in front of me, when I run, solidly, into someone. I jump back, an apology on my lips. Then I see him. He has an eye patch over one eye, and is smiling with a very unnerving look on his face.

"Hello, Tris." Edward says.

"Hi..." I say back. It's the only thing I can think of to say.

"Someone wants to meet with you."

My mind is reeling. Who would Edward know, that wants to meet with me? Isn't he factionless now?

"Oh yeah, who is that?" I question him. "How did you know I was here?"

"You'll find out soon enough. Follow me."

I hold my ground. Not sure that I want to follow Edward anywhere in the dark.

He sees me standing still and says, "I could always knock you out and carry you, but it would be much easier if you just came peacefully."

"Ha." I burst out in a low chuckle. I don't want to follow him, but I take one look at him and decide. Even with everything I have learned in dauntless, I am unarmed and he is much bigger than I am. "Fine, lead the way."

We walk in silence the whole way. He leads me out of the Abnegation sector, into an area that I know the factionless occupy. We stop in front of a rundown building that looks like it could fall down at any minute. Edward motions for me to follow him, as he steps inside. I am not sure who in the factionless could want to meet me, or why. My curiosity is peaking, as is my nervousness. We reach another door inside, and Edward stops. "This is as far as I go."

I push open the door and step inside. It takes a moment for my mind to comprehend the sight before me. Standing behind a desk is a very alive looking, Evelyn Eaton; Tobias,' supposedly dead, mother.

"You're supposed to be dead." I blurt out.

"Yes well, things aren't always as they are supposed to be." She replies calmly.

I nod. Not knowing how to respond, although my brain is flying through different thoughts.

"Since you are here, I'd like to make you an offer." She explains.

"What kind of offer?" I question tersely. I do not trust this woman. My mind is finally catching up and I am very angry with her. She left Tobias, she must have known what Marcus was doing, and she just left.

"I know about your 'uniqueness'. You are not safe with Dauntless."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but it sounds like some kind of threat?" I spit at her. My anger is growing and my patience is wearing thin.

"No, just a statement." She replies, still calm. Her calmness has an unnatural feeling, like it is a practiced state, and not entirely true. "I want to offer you an opportunity to change our society; to prevent the further destruction of your kind."

"My kind?" I am still playing dumb.

"Divergents." she says as if the word isn't dangerous, or isn't the reason why, I can't sleep at night.

"I don't know what you are talking about." I tell her. "I have come and listened, I will be leaving now."

"Wait."

I stop with my back to her.

"Ask my son if he has considered my offer, and what he has decided." Her voice is full of glee as my shoulders tense. So Tobias knew. He knew she was alive and never said anything to me. What else has he been keeping from me?

I leave the room quickly, not trusting myself to look back. I walk quickly out of the building and blindly make my way back to Abnegation. I am still so focused on the events with Evelyn that I almost don't see them before it is too late.

Dauntless soldiers are everywhere in Abnegation. My mind begins to race; we are supposed to have 3 whole days before this happens! I duck behind the nearest house and try to think fast. I need to get to my parents. They are in danger and I need to get them out of here. I hear screams coming from down the street and I peak around the corner to see what is happening. I wish I wouldn't have looked though, because as I do, I see people in gray being dragged out of their home. The Dauntless soldiers shove them to the ground, and I watch as one of them walks up to the man of the house. It happens so quickly I don't see it coming. The scream stops in my throat, as the man slumps dead to the ground. I turn around and start running down the side street as fast as my feet can carry me towards my parents.

Tobias POV

I have been lying in bed for hours now, trying to shut my mind down. If only it were as easy as shutting down a computer; just one button and they go offline. My mind has others ideas for tonight. I get up with a groan, knowing that without Tris by my side, I am not getting any sleep. I throw on some clothes, not bothering to pay attention to what I put on, and head to the control room. If I am not going to sleep, I might as well get some work done. I have been trying to connect Peter's movements, to the Dauntless and Erudite leaders'. Thus far I haven't been able to find much. I'm sitting in the dark, quiet control room scanning the screen, when I hear loud footsteps outside the door. Surprised, I start to get up to look outside, when Uriah bursts into the room.

"It's started" he gasps out.

"What's started?" I question, my mind sluggish.

"The simulation! Everyone's walking around like zombies."

"But…it's not supposed to happen for 3 days." I say. My mind immediately goes to Tris. They are headed for Abnegation. "I have to find Tris!"

"Wait Four." Uriah blocks my way to the door. "You're the best chance we have of stopping this thing, and the best option is for you to stay here, and find a way to stop the simulation. I'll find Tris. I promise."

The sincerity in Uriah's voice makes me believe him instantly, but that doesn't mean that I am happy to leave her in someone else's hands. I snap back to reality as I realize, that stopping the simulation from here, would probably be an easier way of saving Tris anyway, rather than racing off to Abnegation with an army surrounding me.

"Fine! Go!" I growl at Uriah.

He leaves the control room quickly and I shut and lock the door firmly behind him. As soon as that is done, I frantically start searching the computer network for any signs of where the simulation is being broadcast from. I need to stop it now.


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Lucky you! I got this one back from my beta reader super fast. **

**Enjoy! :)**

Chapter 11

Tris POV

I arrive at my old house out of breath, and knock loudly on the door. It only takes my mother a second to open it, and I shove my way past her, slamming the door behind me. Knowing I don't have a lot of time to explain, I start with the basics.

"Abnegation is under attack. You need to go to a safe location." My voice is harried and conveys my urgency. "Where's dad?"

"He is attending an emergency meeting. Beatrice, what is going on?" My mother is not normally curious, but her eyes are wide with fear, and her face is set with a grim determination.

"I don't have time to explain, is there somewhere safe, people can go to?"

"Yes, there are a few old safe houses. We have been keeping them in good condition; for fear that this would happen."

"Good. We need start moving people to them, and quickly."

We are able to bring several families to the first safe house without mishap. The Dauntless soldiers are still on the outskirts of the sector. Just as we start making our second round, I see a black blur break from behind the houses, and make its way quickly to us. I see immediately that it is Uriah and sigh with relief. Uriah is divergent, he can't be controlled.

"God am I glad I found you." He exclaims. He hands me a gun and a knife. I take both, glad to finally have a way to defend myself again. Surprisingly my mother asks him if he has any extra. He stares at her dumbfounded for a second, before handing her a smaller gun that was hidden in his belt. She expertly handles the weapon, and I can't help but give a questioning glance. She just shrugs and I decide to let it go for now.

"Come on I'll explain as we go." I tell Uriah, knowing we need to keep moving.

"No, we need to get somewhere safe." He starts trying to pull me back towards the nearest house.

I refuse to budge, and push him away. "No! We need to help them."

"Ugh, Four is gonna kill me."

"Come on." I groan.

We lead another group to the second shelter, and are just heading out for our third round, when I sense, more than hear, them coming. I turn to look just in time, to see about 5 Dauntless soldiers coming straight for us. We sprint around the corner and crouch down. From here, we see Abnegation families running in the street at the end of the alleyway. We will be surrounded soon enough. Uriah and I start talking about the best way to get away from them, but my mother interrupts us. She walks up to me and envelopes me in her arms. As she does she whispers in my ear, "I love you Beatrice. Be brave." And she is gone back around the corner. I turn to stop her, but Uriah is pulling me away. I hear the sound of gunfire, and it pierces my heart.

My mind goes blank. I don't feel anything, not Uriah's hand dragging me away from my mother, not my feet colliding with the ground. All I feel is numb, then all of a sudden Uriah's pressure on my arm is released and I get my senses back. I look up to see Will standing in front of us. His eyes are blank, seeing nothing. I scream at him to stop, but before I can move I hear another gunshot. I close my eyes expecting to feel pain, but I open them when I hear Uriah cry out. I turn to see him fall to the ground hard, and he is still. When I face Will again his gun is pointed at me. I raise my own gun, not thinking, only reacting. I aim straight for his head.

Tobias POV

I have been searching for any reference to the war simulation and the only information I have been able to find is talk about Erudite and Dauntless. I already know that our leaders have been working together for some time, planning this attack on Abnegation, so I find this information to be of no use.

That is, until I stop and think about it, in order for them to start up the control of the entire Dauntless population, the simulation would probably need to originate within Dauntless. It would be the best strategy, since all the Dauntless would be out of the compound, and no one would be left to destroy the computers. I do a quick scan of the networks' mainframe, and find exactly what we have been looking for the last few weeks. I curse at myself for not thinking of this sooner, and start typing commands into the computer.

I can only hope that I am not too late, and that the Abnegation and Tris are safe. It only takes 5 minutes, but those minutes seem like the longest of my life. The simulation was hidden well, but the security on the file clearly proves that, whoever created it was not planning on having anyone around to destroy it. It takes a simple click of the delete button, and finally the simulation shuts down. For good measure, I tear out the computer's hard drive, then dash out the door, knowing chaos is about to erupt in the compound, and we need to be ready for it.

Tris POV

My finger hovers over the trigger for just a moment; I don't want to do this, to kill one of my best friends. Then something changes. As I look into his eyes, the light in them returns, he drops his gun, and stares right at me with dawning comprehension. I sigh with relief , something must have stopped the simulation. My relief is short lived when I hear Uriah groan from the ground beside me. I kneel down next to him, to assess the damage. The bullet hit his right shoulder and is bleeding mildly, but it's the cut on his head that worries me more. There is blood streaming down his face and he looks very disorientated.

"What happened?" he mumbles, wincing in pain as he tries to sit up. I support him with my hands on his shoulder.

"You got shot." I deadpan.

"Geesh Will, I guess I'm lucky you're not a better shot." Uriah addresses Will, who has moved to stand behind me.

I can see Will's hands trembling slightly out of the corner of my eye, but I don't have time to deal with it. I need to find my father. I know that even though the simulation has ended, the threat to the Abnegation is not over, and the leaders will be the first target.

"Will, can you help Uriah? You two need to get the Abnegation from the safe houses to Amity. They should be safe there for a little while." I tell him.

"Yeah, sure." His reply is monotone.

I turn and take off running down the side road. I can hear Uriah yelling, angrily after me, but I ignore him. At this moment, finding the reassurance that my father is okay, is more important than anything else. I don't know if I could survive losing him too.

As I approach the meeting hall I can sense something is wrong. It is too quiet considering the war that has erupted in the streets. I crouch behind a wall and look around. I search for any sign of movement around or within the building. After several minutes of nothing, I decide to make my way inside. I take several deep breaths and dash into the building. The sight that greets me makes my stomach roll, and it takes all of my willpower, not to empty the meager contents of my stomach. I am left gasping for air instead. I force myself to continue, I am scared of what I will find, but I need to find my father. I reach the main meeting hall and an inhuman sound escapes me as I take in the gruesome sight. Abnegation lie everywhere, some draped in chairs, others lying on the floor, and all of them stare with unseeing eyes. I stop unable to move a single muscle. I tell myself that I will take 5 seconds, and then start to move again. 5…4…3…I need to find my father…2…1. I force myself to move forward, avoiding looking at any one person's face for too long. I know all of these people. They are people I grew up knowing; they are my parent's friends. They did not deserve this. I am suddenly rooted to the spot by a voice erupting from the shadows beside me.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" the voice is cold, quiet and it makes my blood run still.

"Looks like we have caught ourselves a traitor." Another voice sneers. This one I recognize and I turn with astonishment.

"Peter?" I whisper. I can't believe it. I was wrong, he is pure evil.

"Hello, Tris." He greets me like an old friend.

I roar at him and lunge. My hands are outstretched, and all I can think about is ripping his throat out, so he can never speak again. Before I can reach him, hands grab me like a vice from both sides, and pin my arms to my sides. I attempt to struggle, but it is futile. The hands are strong and belong to two people.

"Now Beatrice, we have big plans for you." The first voice speaks again and the person accompanying it walks out from the shadows.

"Jeanine. What could you possibly want with me?"

"Oh please, let us not play those games, you know what you are. You are of value to me. You see, I thought this latest simulation would work on divergents. It appears my calculations were wrong. I want to know why."

"Maybe, you're not as smart as you think." I spit at her, putting as much venom into my voice as I can muster.

"Now, now, no need to be insulting Beatrice." Her demeanor is still calm, but I saw the flash in her eyes when I insinuated that she wasn't smart. She doesn't like to be defied or insulted.

Then she turns from me and addresses the guards at my sides. "Take her back to Erudite. I want to perform some tests."

I immediately start to struggle again, my mind is in fight mode; I can't be taken back to Erudite, I would rather die. I am putting up a pretty good struggle, as the guards try hauling me towards the door, until I see him. My father is sitting against the wall, and the pose is almost casual, if it wasn't for the red blood covering his shirt and the blank look in his eyes. All the fight goes out of me in an instant and I slump down. I want to scream or cry or do anything, but all I can do is be dragged off ,by Dauntless traitors, to who knows where or even what.


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: I wanted to assure some of my reviewers that I will continue to update this story regularly. Thanks for all the reviews. I cannot believe how many favorites/follows I have gotten.**

**Enjoy! :)**

Chapter 12

Tobias POV

The first thing I do, is rush to the leaders' offices and find the keys to the weapon storage. I know that soon, Dauntless are going to be coming back to the compound, many in seek of revenge, and before more blood can be shed I hope we can organize a plan.

Then I head to the control room and check the cameras at the entrances. So far, Dauntless is still a ghost town, no one has made it back. Then I see a mass of black jump off the train onto the roof. They are approaching from the net entrance. I should have guessed. I am relieved to see Tori and Zeke among them, I know I am going to need help getting Dauntless members under control. I rush to the net just in time to meet the first jumper.

I reach out my hand and pull Tori out of the net. I suddenly have a flashback of the last time I was pulling someone out of this net. It was Tris, back when she was still wearing gray. My thoughts are wildly racing, thinking about her now, wondering where she is.

"Four!" Tori's voice snaps me out of my thoughts. She is clearly surprised by my presence here. "What are you doing here? Alone?"

"It's a long story." I explain. She seems to accept this for now, and as the next Dauntless drop into the net, we turn to help them out. It's Zeke, and as soon as he is out, he pulls me to the side.

"Uriah?" he asks, and I know what he is implying.

"He wasn't under the simulation. He went into Abnegation to help." I tell him.

Zeke exhales with relief I think, and then his eyes grow cold. "You let him go by himself? Into a full on war?" He questions in a quiet, but deadly voice.

"He's the reason we were able to stop this thing. He insisted that I stay and work on the computers, and we stopped it."

We are interrupted by Tori's presence, and we turn to see Dauntless members milling about, talking loudly with each other, and clearly unsure of what to do next, but getting rowdy.

"Everyone gather in the cafeteria! We need to figure out how to defend ourselves and stop Erudite!" I shout over the crowd.

Everyone's eyes are on me, questioning me. I am not a leader, but the Dauntless leaders are all traitors. "Do what he says, NOW!" Tori yells.

Everyone starts whooping and running towards the cafeteria. I quickly tell Zeke to pick someone and stay at the entrance in case more come back. More have to come back right? He nods and grabs another Dauntless member, who I think I remember, is called Russell.

I follow the crowd to the cafeteria and stand with Tori near the front. She gets up on a chair and does the only thing that will ever get a crowd of Dauntless to shut up.

"Everyone, shut the hell up!"

It still takes a while, but eventually everyone's eyes are on us. I am immediately uncomfortable; I have never enjoyed having people look at me. I want to shrink back, but this moment is important. So instead I stand up a little straighter and put on my best Dauntless face.

"We need to form a plan to fight back!" Tori continues in a loud voice. "But seeing as our previous leaders were cowards and traitors we need to elect new leaders first. Any nominations?"

The crowd erupts in whoops and clapping and then someone shouts, "You, Tori!" In the crowd I can't see who is speaking, but then I hear my name, "Four". People nod and shout some more, but no more names immediately come forth.

"Ok, we need at least one more," Tori explains, "We need an odd number."

I hear someone shout "Alec" and a slightly older Dauntless breaks through the crowd. Tori greets him with a grim smile, which he returns. I study him carefully, I know I have never met him before. He is tall, my height, but built a little bit broader. We stand together in front of the crowd, while they expectantly wait for us to talk. Surprisingly it is Alec who speaks first, "We need to protect the compound first, anyone who is willing to act as guards for the entrances, please stay here. Everyone else, head back to your homes we will meet here again tomorrow morning to discuss more plans."

People immediately start to move, although not many actually leave. Tori picks up speaking, "Okay, you three" she points to three Dauntless standing near the front, "head to the net entrance to assist Zeke and Russel, and you five head to the main entrance. Anyone trying to gain admittance escort them straight here. The rest of you sign your name, and your housing number on this list so we can assign shifts for guard duty."

Everyone starts moving again and I turn to Tori. "Are you sure we can trust them to not just shoot anyone they see coming?" I question her.

"Yes the people I picked are people I know and trust. We will sift through the other names and only pick those we trust."

I nod, assured that Tori has an idea what she is doing. Alec joins the conversation and asks, "What do we do with the others as they come back? How do we know who to trust?"

Tori answers, "We won't be able to know right away who is trustworthy, but we will keep all information need to know, and not arm anyone unless we trust them. Although, my bet is that if they are coming back here they are trustworthy, what traitor would want to come back to a crowd of angry Dauntless, who have just been under mind control."

I nod, realizing I haven't had much input in the conversation so far, but my mind is somewhere else. It's with Tris and the Abnegation. I am about to ask about them when another crowd of Dauntless walks in with two of the guards and we begin the process of telling them what is happening all over again.

Tris POV

They are half dragging, half carrying me down Abnegation streets. I have given up struggling, but I refuse to assist them, so I let my feet drag on the ground. Slowly, my senses come back and I am aware of Peter's voice.

"It really is too bad for you, that you survived in Dauntless. I've heard you're going to have so much fun with the Erudite's experiments." Peter smiles smugly, clearly pleased with himself.

"Just tell me one thing?" I ask him.

"What?"

"Were you the one who kidnapped me in Dauntless?"

"You are so thick. Of course it was me."

"Why?" my voice shakes a little with anger.

"Simple, you didn't deserve anything you got, so when the leaders asked me for a favor I was happy to oblige them. Of course you were supposed to just die, but this seems so much better."

My anger flairs again and I suddenly feel the urge to fight. I start to struggle again and I take my guards by surprise. They only had a light hold on me and I am able to get loose. I swing my fist at Peter and he doesn't have time to react. It collides into his temple with a satisfying sound. He falls and I start to kick him viciously, expecting the guards to grab me any second. No one does though, and when I look up I am surprised to see Max standing over the two unconscious guards. He quickly walks over to me and grabs my arm roughly.

It all becomes too much and my legs feel like jello. I start to fall, but he grips both my arms and looks me right in the eyes. "You need to run, now." He commands. "Take this back to Dauntless and use it to destroy them." He hands me a small disc. I take it from him. "Now, hit me and make it look good"

"Hit you?" I am confused.

"Yes, I need an excuse." He explains impatiently.

"Why are you doing this?" I ask.

"I believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that makes one person stand up for another."

I know those words well.

I put all my leftover frustration at Peter and Erudite into one good hit. I am surprised in a good way when he collapses and a little guilty too. He is helping me escape. I have no idea what he is going to do, but I don't hesitate any longer before I turn and sprint off toward Dauntless.


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: So grateful to everyone who has favorited/followed this story. Also a shout out to my awesome reviewers. I love your feedback and encouragement. Special shout out to ploiuiu for all your reviews :) **

**Enjoy! :)**

Chapter 13

Tobias POV

We have seen two more groups of Dauntless. Everyone is very confused and even more angry. Being typical Dauntless, most of them are all for grabbing a bunch of weapons and running back out to start killing traitors. We have been able to calm them down with assurances that we all want 'revenge' and it will happen eventually. I am not sure that 'revenge' is the best, but I am all for justice.

The next group walks in and I scan the crowd searching for any sign of Tris. I thought she would have made it back by now and my worrying is starting to become full blown panicking. I don't see her in this group either and my eyes go to the door.

I am shocked and angry to see Uriah standing by Zeke, without Tris. I leave my post at the front of the room and storm to where they are standing. Along the way I get a good look at Uriah and what I see makes me panic even more. His sleeve is stained with red and he is holding his arm against his body. He also has a long gash on his forehead that hasn't quite stopped bleeding. He looks very pale.

"Where is she?" I ask, my voice comes out shakier than I intended.

"I don't know. I'm sorry Four." Uriah looks down as he speaks. He clearly feels guilty for something. "I was injured and then the simulation stopped and she ran off somewhere. I tried to stop her, but I couldn't."

My mind is full of questions: Where did she go after the simulation stopped? Why wouldn't she have come back to me? Why isn't she back yet?

I sigh, "It's ok, it's not your fault, you were injured."

I then turn to question Zeke, but as I turn, I see Tris running towards me. For a second I think I am hallucinating, but in no time, she is gripping my arm for support, as she gasps for air.

Before I find my voice Uriah grabs her and pulls her into a hug. I am momentarily jealous and I mentally curse myself for not doing that first. She hugs him back for a second, but then releases him and grabs my hand. She looks up at me, and in her beautiful gray-blue eyes, all I see right now is pain.

"I need to talk to you, alone." She says. There is no emotion in her voice, but I can see it all over her face. I know she is trying to hide it though, so I make no comment. I silently lead her out of the room, and to our apartment. I know that Tori and Alec can handle talking to the next group and I need some time alone with Tris as well.

Once we get there, she walks in and sits on the couch. She hasn't said a word since we left the others. I go sit beside her and take her hands in mine. "What did you need to talk about?"

"Here," she hands me a memory disc.

"Where did you get this?" I ask

"Max gave it to me when…" she pauses midsentence, clearly struggling with something.

"When what, Tris?" I ask, my voice low and full of the concern I feel.

"When he helped me escape." She answers.

I stare blankly at her. She had to escape. From what? I get off the couch and move in front of her. Place one hand on her cheek and gently guiding her chin with the other. She looks up into my eyes and suddenly her lips crash against mine. I return the kiss without hesitation, giving way to all the worry and concern that I have felt since the simulation started. It's only when I feel something wet hit my hand that I stop. I pull back enough to look at her, but she's looking down at the floor, avoiding my gaze.

"What's wrong?" I ask gently.

She's quiet for a long time and I just stare at her, pleading with her to say something or even just to return my gaze. Finally she looks up and her eyes are filled with tears. She whispers so quietly I have to lean in to hear her, "My parents…they're…gone."

"Oh, Tris." I grab her in my arms and hold her as tight as I can. She clutches to me too. I can tell she is about to break and I feel as though I am trying to hold the pieces of her together.

Tris POV

I cling to Tobias. So much has happened since we parted ways yesterday. I told him what happened to my parents and even though I don't want to look weak in front of anyone, I am glad he is here to keep me from losing it. I hold on to him until my breathing starts to become regular and I feel more stable. I slowly release my grip on him and pull back to look into his eyes. He looks back at me with sadness, but no pity and for that I am thankful. I do not need his pity, but I do need his strength.

"What now?" I ask, my voice croaking from all the crying.

Before he can answer there's a knock on the door. I look at Tobias and he shrugs as if to say, he doesn't know who it is. He gets up from the couch and goes to open the door. There stands the whole gang. Tobias ushers them into the apartment and goes to get his portable computer from the other room.

I explain. "Max gave me this disc when I was leaving Abnegation. He told me it's important and contains information about Erudite's plans."

I hand the disc to Tobias when he sits back down and try to distract myself from the grief that is overwhelmingly seeping through me. Since I have stopped moving and fighting, it is becoming harder to hold it together.

In an effort to lose myself, I resort to my old Abnegation ways; I try to focus instead on my friends. As I look around I notice they all look dazed to varying degrees. I guess coming out of a simulation will do that to you. I also notice for the first time that Uriah isn't here and I feel guilty for not noticing sooner. I break the silence that is blanketing the room.

"Zeke, how's Uriah doing?" I ask.

"He's ok, I sent him to the infirmary to get properly fixed up."

I glance at Will remembering what happened in Abnegation. He is sitting next to Christina with his head in his hands. I get up and walk over to him, placing a comforting hand on his arm. "It wasn't your fault."

"I could have killed him." He moans.

"But you didn't." I insist.

"Guys, I've got something here." Tobias announces from the couch.

We all crowd around him and the computer while he explains what he found. "Most of the information is encrypted and will take a while to get at, but I've been able to open this file. It contains maps with specific locations and dates marked. I think this is Erudite's attack plans."

"Whoa, this is huge." Zeke voices what we are all thinking.

I quickly scan the dates noticing today's date marked on the map by Abnegation. Also I notice dates marked by Amity, Candor and various other locations that I learned to be factionless hideouts.

"The next date on here is two weeks from today." Tobias proclaims.

"I guess we have a lot or work to do before then." Shauna contributes.

"Yes we do." Replies Tobias. He quickly types a few keystrokes and removes the disc from his computer, and tucking it safely in his pocket. "I better go fill Tori and Alec in on what we found."

"I'm going to go see Uriah." Will states.

"I'll go with you." Christina supplies.

"We'll all meet up later." Tobias says. He glances at the watch on his wrist and quickly adds, "Make that tomorrow, it's already really late and we should all get some sleep."

I glance at his watch and I'm surprised to see that it is past midnight. I didn't realize we had spent that much time in our apartment; it had only just been getting dark when I got back to the compound.

He turns to me and quietly whispers so only I can hear, "Why don't you get some sleep? I know it's been a long day for you."

I shake my head quickly. I know I won't be able to sleep without him there and I am not ready to give way to the nightmares I know will come tonight. "Later." Is all I say. He looks like he wants to argue, but then thinks better of it.

Zeke, Shauna, Lynn, Tobias and I make our way back to the cafeteria. As we enter Tobias gives my hand a quick squeeze and then lets it go as he starts to make his way to the front of the room. I see him greet Tori, and another Dauntless, whom I assume is Alec, but I don't recognize him.

I start when Zeke touches my arm and I turn to see his characteristic smile is back, with only a hint of something else on his face.

"He's been elected a leader now." He laughs at that. "After two years of pushing it off, I knew it would happen eventually."

"Yeah, I guess he just needed the right thing to lead." I reply as pride fills me. I am proud of Tobias for stepping up when he was needed; I've always known he would make a good leader. I watch as he speaks with the other leaders.

"Do you know Alec well?" I ask curious.

"Not really, I know he is a few years older than Four, and that he was a transfer."

"From where?" I question, finding it interesting that faction transfers, that survive Dauntless initiation, make strong Dauntless members.

"Dunno" Zeke answers, shrugging.

I turn my attention back to Tobias. He seems to finish up his conversation with Tori and Alec, before Tori addresses the crowd of Dauntless who remain in the cafeteria.

"Tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock we will be holding another meeting here to go over what to do next. Until then unless you are assigned to help guard the entrances please go back to your living quarters."

People start filing out of the room and I approach Tobias. I notice that Zeke and Shauna are following me. Tori greets me, "Hi Tris. Glad to see you made it back safely. Tobias says we have you to thank for the information on Erudite."

I shrug and reply, "Hopefully it helps." Tobias gives me a small smile and puts his arm around my shoulders.

Alec surprises me when he addresses me, Zeke and Shauna. "We have discussed it, and we decided that we want you three, and a few others who have proved to be loyal, valuable members of Dauntless, to attend a special meeting tomorrow morning. We will be forming committees and plans on how best to approach this situation."

Zeke and Shauna exchange a quick glance and then they both nod. I look up at Tobias, but he is refusing to look at me. I turn back to Alec and reply, "I'll be glad to help." Tobias stiffens just a little bit next to me and I know he was hoping I might refuse Alec's offer. He wants me to stay out of danger, but that would be cowardly of me. I need to be in this, for my future and for my parents.

Suddenly everything becomes too much for me, and my fatigue threatens to pull me down. Tobias can sense my sudden shift and casually places his arms around my waist to support me. "I think we are going to try and get a few hours of sleep." He tells the others.

I hear them murmur in agreement and we start to make our way back to our apartment. Once we are out of sight of the others Tobias picks me up in his arms. I am grateful he waited until now, I don't want to seem weak, but I am also grateful to finally be off my feet. I fall asleep in his arms and I am only vaguely aware of being placed in our bed, and him curling up next to me. I feel him brush a tender kiss to my forehead and I give him a smile, but my eyes are too heavy to open.


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: Thank you to the wonderful guest reviewer who pointed out that there hasn't been much fourtris in the past couple chapters. I have a difficult time righting fluff, so it tends to accidentally get left out. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and please review to let me know what you think.**

**Enjoy! :-)**

Chapter 14

Tris POV

I wake up in the early hours of the morning covered with sweat and shaking slightly. As I expected I did not sleep soundly even with Tobias' arms around me protectively. Instead I dreamt of death, dying and my father eyes as he sat in Abnegation. His dead haunting eyes are there when I try to close my eyes and return to sleep. I lay there for a few minutes with my eyes open, until I feel Tobias stir next to me. His eyes open slowly, sleepily and find mine. "How'd you sleep?" he mumbles.

"Okay." I reply monotone.

"Tris, you don't have to lie to me." He replies sternly. "Did you get any sleep at all?"

"A little." I mumble. Sometimes I hate how well he can read me.

He glances at the clock and sighs, "It's only 4, do you want to try to sleep or do you want to talk about it?"

"Neither." I say and smile up at him. "I'd much rather distract myself with other things."

"Alright then, let's go somewhere." He responds getting up from the bed and pulling me up with him.

He slips on a shirt and sweatshirt and I do the same. He takes my hand in his and I am curious where we are going, but I decide to trust him, and I simply follow him out of the room. We make our way silently through the quiet hallways. It is weird to be in Dauntless and have no noise around us. As we reach the pit I have an idea where he is taking me and my suspicions are confirmed when he guides me to our secret path. We carefully make our way down to our spot on the rocks by the roaring water. It is peaceful here. He settles himself on a flat rock and pulls me down into his embrace. I lean back against his chest and relax in the comfort of his arms; letting his slow, steady heartbeat calming me.

"Do you think you can tell me about it now?" He asks quietly, trying not to disrupt the peace.

I really don't want to, but he isn't going to give up until I tell him something. I sigh, none of this will be easy to talk about and I start at the beginning. I tell him about hearing the screams and helping my mom hide the Abnegation. I tell him about Uriah finding us and then about my mom sacrificing herself to save us. I tell him about almost killing Will after he shot Uriah. I pause when I get to the next part and take a deep breath. He rubs my arms encouragingly and just waits for me to continue, he hasn't said anything yet, not interrupting my thoughts. I continue, I tell him about entering the meeting hall in search of my father, and my conversation with Jeanine. I tell him about being taken and finally about seeing my dad. I don't tell him how it felt to see him or what he looked like, the thoughts are too painful to share. Finally, in a rush I finish with telling him about Max and my escape.

When I am done, there is silence for a long time. Tobias envelopes me in his arms and holds me tight. I realize that while I intended on telling him everything I have left out some details. I left out meeting his mother, I feel like that is a discussion for another time.

And before I can stop them, tears are streaming down my face and sobs rack my body. All of the emotions that I have tried so hard to keep inside me are escaping. Tobias holds me tightly against him and waits until my tears have dried up before he speaks.

"I love you, Tris. I will always be here for you." His voice is low and soothing.

I nod against his chest.

He pulls back a little to look into my face. I try to smile, but it is more of a weak grimace. Then he pulls something out of his pocket.

"I was originally going to give this to you on our one month anniversary, but then, well you know, and there hasn't been a right time since." He tells me. He takes my hand and very gently places a necklace in my palm. My breath catches in my throat. The necklace is delicate with a small heart and a 4 attached to it.

"It's beautiful." I murmur.

Tobias lets out a nervous laugh and I glance up to see his expression. "I wasn't sure if you'd like it. I know you don't usually wear jewelry."

I shake my head, "I love it and I love you. Thank you."

He gently guides my face close to his and whispers against my lips. "I want you to know you're my family now."

Our kiss is deep and meaningful. I know that he means what he says and I know that he is the most important person in my life now. I feel very guilty, all of a sudden, for keeping secrets from him.

I pull back from our kiss, "I want us to always be open with each other."

He looks at me and his face conveys his confusion at my words, I just continue on.

"I left out something when I was telling you about what happened in Abnegation. Before the simulation started I wasn't at the meeting room. Well, not the one you assumed, I was coming from a meeting with your mother."

His face grows dark and his eyes turn cold at my words. "Evelyn is not my mother." He spits.

"She doesn't seem to have that same impression." I question.

"Yes well, she doesn't seem to think that leaving me with my father was the wrong thing to do. She knew what he was like and she still didn't care."

I am silent, waiting for Tobias to look at me again, waiting for his anger to subside. Once his expression clears a bit and his clenched fists loosen I link my fingers through his. He looks at me as if he just noticed I was there with him. "What did she want?"

"It's not important. She just talked nonsense about divergents and then asked if you had reconsidered her offer."

"Ha, yeah her _offer_." The word is dripping with his sarcasm.

I am curious, "What _was_ her offer?"

"She wanted me to come be factionless with her. She said she had big plans to help the city and that I could be a part of those plans."

"Any idea what she meant by that."

"No, I never went back to find out. I was busy and then I met you."

I am struck dumb by his words. I am the reason he never returned to his mother. Is that a good thing, she is his blood after all. As if he can sense my thoughts he says, "Blood means nothing, you are my family. You are my everything. I don't know what I would do without you."

I find comfort in his words and the conviction behind them. I have never been sure of anything in my life, but I am sure that together we can survive anything that's coming.


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: So Sorry for the delay in this update, this chapter was painful to write. Hopefully the length of it makes up for the wait. I wanted to reassure everyone that I am continuing this story, and updates will come regularly. PLEASE Read & Review!**

Enjoy! :-)

Chapter 15

Tris POV

We stayed at the chasm until we could meet our friends in the cafeteria for breakfast before our meeting. We didn't talk anymore, Tobias just held me in his arms and we thought about what was to come. I felt my strength grow in his presence.

We entered the cafeteria hand in hand; feeling more well rested than any night's sleep could ever give us.

"Tris, what is that?" Christina exclaims as I take the open seat next to her. At first I am confused, and it must show on my face, "your necklace!" she explains.

"Oh", my hand moves to touch the jewelry that is now resting around my neck. I smile at Tobias and indulge Christina, by allowing her to see my necklace, as she gushes about how we are just too cute. I eat my breakfast listening to the antics of my friends. Uriah is out of the infirmary and back to his usual self, arguing with Zeke. Zeke is saying he never would have let himself be shot. They are laughing, but Will looks distinctly uncomfortable where he sits, on the other side of Christina. Marlene is sitting next to Uriah, talking with Lynn and Shauna, while Christina is going on about getting the Pit up and running normal again.

My thoughts drift to the world outside this compound. I find my thoughts wandering to my family, my mother and father and then my brother. Caleb. I wonder if he knows what has happened to our parents. I wonder if he played a part in Erudite's plans. I can only hope that he would never be involved in something so cruel and selfish. I know that soon, I will have to try to get in contact with him. He is the only blood family I have left.

I am startled when I feel a light touch on my arm. "Tris, are you ready?"

I look up to see that Tobias has gotten up and is looking at me with concern. I smile at him quickly, "Yeah sorry, lost in thought." He nods and leads the way out of the room. We make our way to the glass building above the Pit, and enter one of the meeting rooms. I glance around the room and see Tori talking with a Dauntless woman that I don't recognize. I also note that there aren't many people here. I suppose that they are trying to keep this meeting as small as feasible. I sit down in a chair between Tobias and Uriah and wait for the meeting to start.

It's not long before everyone is seated around the table and Tori starts speaking. "You are all here because our city is at war. As Dauntless it is our job to fight back against the injustices being done, and to show Erudite that we do not fear them. With that said, we welcome suggestions on what should be our next steps."

She pauses and looks expectantly at each person in turn. I look around the table as she does and notice that everyone seems to be thinking, although no one is saying anything. Zeke is the first to break the silence. "I think that the security of the compound should be a priority. Erudite is likely to attack while they think we are still weak and recovering and we need to be prepared." People nod their heads in agreement.

"Okay. I think we are all in agreement about that," Tori supplies. "Zeke, I think you should be in charge of the security committee." Zeke sits up a little straighter with a seriousness that I've rarely seen in him, obviously prepared to take this role on and nods his head once.

"We should attack Erudite now, while they are also weak and unprepared." Alec speaks up, clearly not wanting to be outdone by Zeke. Some people start nodding their heads, but I zone out as that conversation continues. I think of what Erudite would do. They probably have a strategy already in place, and since they initiated this war, it is likely they are prepared for an attack. It is too like Dauntless, to attack first and think later. We need to take a different strategy.

"No." I state. Heads turn in my direction, but I look at Tobias. He is looking at me with curiousness in his eyes, but also a steadfast support. He believes in my abilities. It is his faith in me that urges me to continue.

"Erudite will be prepared for a frontal attack right now; we need to be more covert. I also think our energies would be better utilized in other ways right now." As I speak, I make sure to look everyone in the eye, and keep my voice from wavering. I need these people to trust me.

"I agree with Tris." Four states from beside me.

"Me too" Uriah, Zeke and surprisingly, the Dauntless woman chime in. It's the first time she said anything during the meeting. She meets my eye with a small smile on her lips. She reminds me of my mother. I look away before my emotions can get the better of me.

"So what do you suggest, we utilize our energies on then?" Tori asks, using my own words.

"Contacting the other factions." I state matter-of-factly.

"Fine, you can go contact the other factions, like Amity would do, while we Dauntless show our true colors and make Erudite pay for their offenses." Alec scoffs.

I am angry now; he has insinuated that I am not Dauntless, worse he has said I am acting Amity. I have proven myself to this faction more than once and I deserve to be treated better than this.

I'm surprised again when the Dauntless woman speaks before I am able to, "Stop. Tris is Dauntless through and through, you know that, you just want revenge. Well, so do the rest of us, we just want to be a little smarter about it."

"Okay, okay. Let's put it to a vote. All those in favor of focusing on an immediate attack."

Alec is the only person in the room to raise his hand. He scowls at everyone and puts his hand down.

"Okay, everyone in favor of contacting the other factions first and pursuing a more covert attack later."

Everyone else raises their hands.

"Tris, you will be in charge of contacting the other factions. How soon should we go?" Tori speaks directly to me.

"As soon as possible, I think we should go to Amity tonight after dark and Candor the next night."

The man I know to be Russell says, "I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. Candor could give us the manpower we need to overpower Erudite."

"I have to agree with Russell," Zeke states.

I give Zeke my best death glare and state, "I know that Amity isn't the fighting type, but they have more valuable resources than just people."

"What kind of resources could be more valuable in a war than people?" Uriah asks innocently.

I groan. They are acting so completely Dauntless. "Maybe, hmm, _food_." I say sarcastically with an eye roll.

"We'd only be waiting one extra day. We have enough food to last much longer than that." Tobias reasons.

I look over to him, but he won't meet my gaze. I am upset and hurt that he is taking their side over mine. I thought he trusted my judgment.

"Let's put it to another vote." Tori says. "All those in favor of going to Amity first."

I raise my hand as do Shauna, Dee and surprisingly Zeke. I thought after his comment he surely would have voted for Candor first. I realize that with nine of us in the room a vote of four won't be good enough though. I try to get Tobias to look at me, I know he must feel my eyes boring into him, but still he refuses.

"Okay, all those in favor of going to Candor first." Tori says.

Tori, Alec, Uriah, with an apologetic smile, Russell and Tobias all raise their hands. All I can do is shake my head dejectedly. I know I have been outvoted and we have to go to Candor first now. I just hope that this move won't be a mistake.

"All right it's settled then. Tris you will lead a group to Candor tonight after nightfall. Who do you want on your team?"

"Dee, Uriah, Will and Christina." I state firmly. Finally, I feel Tobias' eyes on me, but it is my turn to not return the gaze.

"You should arrange a meeting after this one, to discuss your plans. Four, I think you should lead training groups in attack strategies and hand-to-hand combat. Your work with the initiates is good experience for this. And Zeke, I'd like to hear more about your plans for the security committee after the meeting as well." Tori closes. Tobias nods once, his demeanor is tense and I can feel a slow anger rolling off of him.

Tobias POV

"If no one has anything further to add, I think we should finish this meeting so we can address the rest of the compound." Tori says motioning towards Alec and myself as she speaks. I barely hear what she is saying my mind is reeling with the ramifications of Tris' words. She doesn't want me to be on her team with her. Why wouldn't she let me; we just talked about how I don't want to lose her. Everyone starts to get up from their chairs as the meeting comes to an end. Tris is still avoiding looking at me, as she makes her way across the room to Shauna and Dee. I walk over to where they are speaking, in hushed voices.

"Tris, can I speak with you for a moment." I say as evenly as I can manage.

"We've got a lot to do Four. Can it wait?" She spits at me.

"It'll only take a second." I respond as I take her arm and firmly lead her out of the room.

"What are you thinking Tris. I should be on that team with you." I say in my quiet, but deadly voice. I want her to know how serious I am. I am too offended to think about hurting her feelings. Plus I am more worried about her safety.

"I am trying to give us the best shot at succeeding. You're needed here." She levels back at me.

"No, that's a lie and you know it. You're just mad that I didn't agree with you in there." I scowl at her. She's not backing down though.

"I don't have time for this now, we will talk about it later."

I am about to retort when Christina and Will come sprinting towards the meeting room.

"Four, Tris!" Christina shouts. "Erudite is here."

Tris grabs Christina's shoulders and steadies her while she asks, "What do you mean Erudite is here?"

"They are attacking the main entrance gate and some have already penetrated the net entrance." Will explains succinctly.

"Go tell the others, I will head to the weapons lock up, start sending people there, we can't let them get too far into the compound." I command in my instructor voice.

Tris turns, and immediately goes into the room. I rush off with Will thinking about what Erudite's plan is, attacking Dauntless now. _What are they trying to gain? _I think.

"I'm not sure, but they're bound to be after something, if they risked coming here." Will responds.

"Wait, did I say that out loud?" I ask.

"No I can read thoughts now, cool trick huh?" Will mutters. He smiles a wry smile. "Seriously though, where in Dauntless do you think they would go?"

"Well it depends on who is controlling the attack. Dauntless would want to go for the weapons, while Erudite would want to go for technology."

"Okay then we split up and cover both." Will replies. I forget sometimes that he came from Erudite, he is still very good at strategy.

Tris arrives followed by everyone who was at the meeting and several more Dauntless members who seem to have caught word of what is going on. I begin handing out weapons to everyone and reluctantly give Tris one. I know she won't stay out of this fight. If she has to be in though, I will have her with me.

"Okay everyone we are going to split into three groups, one group will go to secure the net entrance that has been breached, another will head to the control room and the last will stay here and guard the weapons."

I point to people as I speak; indicating which group they should belong to and no one hesitates to complete their jobs. We reach the control room and nothing looks out of order. The door is locked just like I left it after the attack simulation. I go inside and look around. Nothing seems to have been disturbed here either. As I exit the room we hear the gunshots. They are coming from the area we left; the weapon storage. I take off running with Tris hot on my heels. We reach the area and crouch around the corner. Several Dauntless are lying injured on the ground and several traitors are also down. I don't see anyone left in the area, but I turn the corner cautiously approaching Zeke who is on the ground. I get to him and check for any injuries, he looks unharmed, but he is unconscious so I can't be sure. He wakes with a start and looks around anxiously.

"Ugh, man what happened?" he groans.

"I was hoping you could tell me that."

"I don't know. They attacked from both sides and started shooting, but they weren't using normal guns and bullets. I think they were using tranq guns. I was hit and then I don't remember anything."

"It doesn't look like they took anything." Tris says from inside the storage area.

"Strange, I wonder what they were doing?" Christina asks.

"I wish I knew." I state.

Tori comes running towards us, "The entrances are both secure, it seems as though they got whatever they came for and are retreating."

"Or we just kicked some traitor butt and scared them off." Uriah shouts cockily.

"Uriah, seriously, you didn't even fire your gun." Tris jokes and pushes him lightly. My anger from earlier flairs at the easy manner she is using with Uriah, when she's hardly looked at me since the meeting.

"We'd better go Four, we have a rowdy, Dauntless crowd to calm down." Tori says. "Tris, Zeke, please get to work right away on your tasks. Erudite obviously isn't going to let up and give us a chance to catch up."

Tris and Zeke confirm, and start to walk off together towards the Pit. I want more than anything to follow Tris right now and be a part of her plans. I start to regret for the first time my decision to seek out Candor first, maybe I should have trusted Tris' judgment more. She did have an aptitude for Erudite and I am one of the only ones who know that. But then I think about how Tori knows too and she voted with me. I am pulled out of my thoughts by Tori shouting at me from down the hall.

"Come on Four, we've got work to do."

I turn, and trudge after Tori and Alec, my conflicted thoughts accompanying me all the way to the cafeteria, where I have something else to worry about. Upset, angry, and confused Dauntless.


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: A huge thank you to Upstyle44 and a Guest reviewer for their wonderful reviews. I love getting any kind of feedback on my story! Everyone should thank them, because after reading their reviews I was motivated to get this chapter finished and posted really quickly. **

**Also, I have started writing another Divergent story. Don't worry, I will keep updating this one regularly. I just had an idea I couldn't shake. I will let you all know when I post it and I hope you will take a look.**

**Enjoy! :-)**

Chapter 16

Tris POV

It's late afternoon by the time we finish our meetings for the late night trip to Candor. I still think we should be going to Amity first, but there is nothing I can do to change everyone's minds, so I tried my best to focus and make successful plans. I'm assuming that getting into Candor won't be too difficult, but convincing them to side with us will be tricky.

I am exhausted from all the talking and strategizing and I think my lack of sleep last night is finally catching up with me. I am thankful, to be too busy to worry much about anything but the mission. I know that if I let myself slow down, all my thoughts will drift to Abnegation, the bloodshed and my family.

I enter the apartment I share with Tobias, noticing gratefully, that he is absent. I don't have the energy to fight him about his involvement in the mission, but I know it is going to happen before I leave tonight. There is no way he'll let me go without a fight. I lay down on the bed and my eyes become heavy. I try to force them to stay open as I go over the plans for tonight, but soon I can't seem to control them and they close against my will. I drift off into the crazy world that is dreamland.

_I am back in Abnegation. I am in the meeting hall with my father and the other Abnegation leaders. Soon Jeanine enters followed by a large group of traitor Dauntless. They don't appear to be under simulation. No, their eyes are awake and alert. They are operating under their own power. In an instant the shooting begins. Screams fill the air as people try to run, but the exit is blocked by armed Dauntless. I scream and close my eyes, not wanting to see any more of this. But all I see on the backs of my eyelids is red, blood red. I open my eyes and I see my father. He is slumped against the wall, just like the last time I saw him in Abnegation. I start to scream, an inhuman sounds. _

I awake with a start. Tobias is standing over me shaking my shoulders and yelling my name loudly. "Tris! Tris!" I look up into his face. His features are a mask of pain and concern. As soon as my eyes open he pulls me into a crushing hug and starts murmuring in my ear, "Don't worry, it's not real, it's just a dream."

I pull away from him and look down at my trembling hands. My whole body is trembling with left over fear from the dream. "It was real though." I whisper.

"What was? What was your dream about?" he asks gently.

"My father." I moan.

Sobs take over my body again and Tobias pulls me close just holding me, to him. His hand runs through my hair comfortingly, while the other one supports my back and shoulders. We sit like that for an unknown amount of time before Tobias breaks the silence.

"Tris, I'm sorry." He begins. I look up at him questioningly. This is certainly not what I expected to hear from him. "I had a long time to think about it and I realize that I let my Dauntless side overrule my rational side during the meeting. You were right about going to Amity first."

As he speaks I feel a pressure lifting off my shoulders. I know that Tobias would never lie to me about how he feels, so this must be the truth.

He continues, "And then, after I got so mad that you wouldn't let me come with, I lost sight of everything but my anger. I should have at least talked to you about it first."

"Tobias, I know you want to be there to protect me, but I have my reasons for not including you and they don't have anything to do with my anger at you, for disagreeing with me. Although, I was hurt when you didn't side with me." I mumble the last part. I know I had to get it off my chest, but I feel bad for saying it after his apology.

His response is to place his hands on either side of my face and slowly bring our lips together. He kisses me slowly, with such passion that I am left with no doubts about us or his feelings for me. I wonder again how I could ever doubt this incredible man in front of me.

Once we part he looks into my eyes so deeply it feels like he is touching my soul with his gaze. The love I see in his eyes is reflected back in my own expression. The thought of having to part from him in a few hours almost tears my heart out.

"Tobias, I feel like I owe you an explanation." I quickly tell him. He starts to shake his head, but I plow on. "No please just listen. I know that once we are in Candor it will be difficult to get them to trust us. I chose the people I did for two reasons. One most of us are transfers and therefore more able to adapt to other factions and two they are likely to put us under the truth serum. I wanted to choose people who wouldn't sound as Dauntless and hell-bent on revenge. I also assume they will force us to divulge our deepest secrets."

As I near the end of my speech, his expression starts to change from one of confusion and frustration to a dawning realization. He understands now that I was just trying to spare him the possibility of having to tell his secrets to everyone at Candor.

"I'm so sorry Tris." He says and he takes my hands in his. "I never even thought that there would be a reason other than your anger towards me. It was stupid of me."

"Shhh, Tobias, stop, I didn't tell you that to make you feel bad, I just wanted you to know, that I love you and would rather have you watching my back than anyone else. Speaking of which, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to accompany us to Candor. I still think it's better if you stay away from the people there, but it would be a comfort to have you near."

"If you insist" Tobias replies while the corners of his mouth turn up in a small smile.

No more words are spoken; we simply curl up in each other's embrace on our bed enjoying the comfort and warmth of the other. Time passes quickly and before I know it, night has fallen and the clock tells me it is time to get up and make the final preparations for tonight's mission. We head out to the weapon storage to meet up with Christina, Uriah, Dee and Will. They are all there when we arrive and although Tobias gets some curious glances, no one says a word.

We are soon off, into the night, hopping on the train headed towards the Candor section of the city. No one speaks, afraid of disturbing the peace of the night. Everyone is on alert, we don't know where the Erudite are right now and we don't want to unexpectedly run into any of them. Thankfully the trip there is uneventful. I leave Tobias with a quick kiss; he will wait for us in an abandoned building near the train tracks. We make our way quickly to Candor's compound with Christina in the lead. I wonder if she is nervous to see her family again. This thought brings me pain, when I think about never seeing my family again. I remind myself that I still have Caleb; hopefully he isn't a part of this whole war business at Erudite.

We walk through the entrance and are immediately surrounded by armed Candor. I wonder for a moment how they acquired weapons. I know that if it came to a fight we would win, but not without bloodshed and there has been too much of that already. I am hoping that they are willing to listen to us instead.

"We came here seeking friends." I say to no one in particular.

A taller girl with bronzed skin and dark hair steps forward, "Christina?" She asks.

I immediately notice the resemblance of the two. They both have the same face shape and general build, along with the same intense gaze and knowing eyes. "Rose?" Christina responds stepping forward. After a moment's hesitation they embrace smiling. When they break apart, it's like they break the tension in the room.

Everyone lowers their weapons and the crowd splits open to let a man walk through. "Hello, I am Jack Kang. Welcome to Candor. What can we do for you?"

I step forward to address him, "We came seeking allies in the war against Erudite. We seek justice for the crimes they have committed against us all."

"How do we know that your intentions are pure?" he asks.

"We understand that you have a serum available to you that will force a person to tell only truths. I am willing to take such a serum, and be questioned while under its influence."

"I am not surprised that you, Beatrice Prior, are willing to do so, after Erudite took your family from you."

I attempt to keep my face and emotionless mask as he reveals some of my deepest secrets already. Though I slip slightly at the mention of my parent's deaths.

"We have our own ways of gathering information here, Beatrice."

"Please, it's Tris."

"Tris." He repeats with an approving grin.

"So, are you willing to accept our proposal?"

"Yes, but I ask that another also undergo the truth serum, so that your 'testimony' may be verified."

Uriah immediately steps forward. We were prepared for this eventuality and had quite a discussion about who else should volunteer. We decided that Uriah, being originally Dauntless, would be the most likely to convince them to trust Dauntless.

"Very well, follow me." Jack Kang states with a smile. Our friends make to follow us, but he puts up a hand to stop them. "Only these two will be needed. The rest of you will have to wait here for our decision."

"It's okay guys, we'll be back soon." I assure them.

We follow Kang into a large circular room. It is full of Candor member even though it is the middle of the night. They must have a system for alerting people when someone is going under the truth serum. In the center of the circle sits two wooden chairs. Next to the chairs, on a table, there are two needles with a blue liquid in them. Uriah agrees to go first and he is injected with the serum. He sits on the chair in the middle of the room while another Candor member begins asking him questions.

The questions are routine at first, what his name is, who his family is, what faction he came from. Then they start asking the important questions.

"How do you feel about Erudite?" the Candor woman asks.

Uriah lets out an evil sounding laugh, "They are a bunch of self-loving, power-hungry know-it-alls." He tells the crowd. This answer receives more than a few chuckles from the watching Candor crowd. I cover my mouth with my hand to prevent them from seeing my smile. That is so like Uriah to give such a strange, almost silly answer in a very important situation.

"Who are you loyal to?" The Candor woman asks again.

"Dauntless." Uriah replies immediately.

"Please be more specific." She prompts.

"Dauntless members like Tris, my brother Zeke and our friends, Marlene, Four, Christina, Will, Shauna, Lynn…would you like me to continue."

"No that is enough. Thank you. Why did you come here tonight?"

"We came seeking allies. Our numbers are too small to stand up to Erudite and the traitors alone, but with help we could easily take them down."

"One last question Uriah. What is your deepest secret?"

"I'm divergent." He states plainly.

I cover my mouth in shock, but not shock at hearing this news. I already knew he was divergent. He admitted it to me a while ago, but shock that he just told all of Candor. Divergence is still a very dangerous thing, maybe more now that Jeanine is openly searching for us. I hear gasps from the audience, but then a whisper. "Thank you for your honesty." The whisper continues around the room. Uriah gets up from the chair shakily and makes his way over to me. He shakes his head in what I think is an attempt to shake off the serum.

"Ms. Prior, your turn." Kang beckons me to him. Uriah gives my hand a slight squeeze as I pass him. I can tell the serum is wearing off and he is aware of his admission. His eyes betray his fear. I reach Jack Kang and he inserts the needle into my neck. I don't flinch. Almost instantly I begin to feel the serum flowing through my veins. My head becomes heavy and my thoughts sluggish. I make my way to the chair and sit down.

The Candor lady begins questioning me. The same questions she gave Uriah at first. My answers flow out immediately as if I have no control, but my brain doesn't want to give up without a fight. I can feel the tug-of-war happening between the serum and my control. However, during the routine questions I have nothing to hide. It is only when she starts asking about Erudite that I start to fight with my words.

"Who are you loyal to?" The Candor woman asks again.

"Dauntless and Abnegation" I reply cautiously.

"Interesting. Please be more specific." She prompts.

"I am loyal to my Dauntless friends and those who are not traitors, I am also loyal to the Abnegation members that I have grown up knowing. The members my parents have lived and worked alongside for years. They are innocent in all this." The last part rolls off my tongue of its own volition. I am not sure I should have admitted that I believe in their innocence when Erudite has been circulating their articles about the transgressions of Abnegation. I decide I need to fight harder against the serum and be more careful.

"Why did you come here tonight?"

"My answer is the same as Uriah's. We came seeking allies. Our numbers are too small to stand up to Erudite and the traitors alone, but with help we could easily take them down."

"One last question Tris. What is your deepest secret?"

My honest answer would have to be my divergence, and that is on the tip of my tongue, but I cannot let that be known. It is too dangerous, and what are the chances that they will believe two divergents' testimonies. Instead I say the next thing that comes to mind, "I was too selfish for Abnegation."

A chorus of "Thank you for your honesty" goes around the crowd and I shakily stand up from the chair. The Candor woman who questioned us escorts us back to the others and we wait for a decision from Candor leadership.

Not long later, Kang comes out followed by several other members. "Most of our members have decided to accept your offer and return with you to Dauntless to be trained for war. Those who do not wish to go will remain here and I assume will face no retaliation from Dauntless."

"Of course not. We want everyone to make their own decisions here." I tell him honestly, "We will leave in 20 minutes. Please tell those who are coming to pack lightly we do not have much space at Dauntless."

Kang nods his head and hurries off down the corridor he came. I turn to my friends and smile. Our first mission has been successful, we have found allies.


	17. Chapter 17

**AN: Thank you for all the amazing reviews! I am so flattered by all the nice things you are saying. I hope that everyone continues to enjoy this story.**

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Tris POV

While we wait for the Candor members I think about our plan to get them back to Dauntless safely. Traveling with such a large group of people would surely attract attention so we have decided to split up into five groups. The problem with this is, there will be only one of us Dauntless per group, with no one to cover our backs until we make it to the train tracks. We decided this would be less dangerous than traveling in too large a group though. The way it is, we will already be traveling in groups of about 30 people.

Finally, all the Candor members who are accompanying us to Dauntless arrive; we explain the plan and split them into five groups. They have distributed some of their weapons among them. I am grateful that more people will be armed, but more than a little wary of strangers with guns. Christina leaves with her group first, her sister tags along with her. I wait at the door listening for any sounds, 15 minutes pass with nothing and I assume that they haven't encountered any problems yet. I send Will the signal and he motions for his group to follow him. As they exit, I notice that, though no one is daring to speak, the sound of their feet hitting the ground, still sounds like a group of Dauntless cheering on a fight in the pit. I can only hope no traitors are in the area. Eventually I send off Dee and then Uriah. It is time for my group to leave and so far I have not heard or had any reports of anything happening in front of us.

I am alert as I lead the group out into the dark night. We have about a mile to travel before we reach the train tracks. My eyes dart back and forth down the unlit alleyways. Then my heart stops beating in my chest, as I hear the unmistakable sound of gunshots coming from the distance. Everyone in my group crowds together and crouches down. I motion for them to duck into an alleyway while I listen. Uriah's group must have encountered someone, though the shots are too close to be from the train tracks.

Without thinking, I take off running. I look back when I hear the pounding of footsteps behind me, and notice several armed Candor are following me. I slow as I approach the sounds. As I look around I see Uriah crouching near the door of an abandoned building, and several figures dressed in black with blue armbands sprawled on the ground. There are not as many Candor down so I assume the rest must be in the building Uriah is guarding. I see the traitors and start shooting. My first shot hits someone in the arm, and I don't pause before taking aim at the next person. The traitors realize they are now being attacked from two fronts, and turn to shoot at us too. I hear a scream from behind me, but all my focus is on what's in front of me. Suddenly more people join the fight. I squint through the darkness and recognize Christina and Tobias' figures. Before long the traitors decide they are too outnumbered and run off.

I quickly turn and run back to where I left my group. I know we have little time to waste before they return with reinforcements and we need to get back to Dauntless. I glance at my watch realizing we have 10 minutes to get to the tracks before the next train comes and it is a 15 minute walk. I reach my group and shout/whisper, "We need to run! Follow me!"

I break out into a run and am soon joined by Christina. I run fast, urging my group to push themselves. I know they are tired from the panting sounds I hear behind me, but we reach the tracks just in time. "Everyone needs to jump on, help each other!" I shout over the noise of the train.

Tobias runs over to me, he grips my arm to support me, I don't need it but I am grateful for his presence. Candor members start to run alongside the train. They mimic Christina as she runs and jumps aboard. Some of them are struggling to pull themselves up and I watch as others help them. The end of the train is nearing and there are still several people trying to get on the train. Will, Uriah, and Tobias start running with people and practically lifting them on the train. With my small size there isn't much I can do to help. I watch anxiously as the last person finally climbs on, before Tobias and I throw ourselves on the last car. We take a seat in our car and I look around at all the people. The emotions in the train range from person to person. Some people are crying, others looks exhausted and ready to collapse, while others just look angry. Until now this war wasn't something they had to experience firsthand. They had only heard about it, but not really seen it. Now that they have, I hope they are more ready to fight. I know it will be a long road to get these people trained and ready.

My own exhaustion takes over me as I sit leaned up against Tobias' warm chest. I am very glad I asked him to come with. I know without him, there probably would have been many more lives lost. We ride back to Dauntless in silence; I have my eyes closed, but feel Tobias stir behind me.

"It's time to jump." He whispers in my ear.

I open my eyes and start to stand up. The Candor around us follow our movements with their eyes. Several of them stand up too. As soon as I see the Dauntless entrance, I jump off the train and run a little ways to slow my momentum. As I turn I see people streaming out of train cars and Dee walking over to Tobias and I. We wait in silence for everyone to get off. All eyes are looking towards us, and as soon as the train is passed I clear my throat and begin to speak.

"This is the entrance to Dauntless. Once inside we will take you to our cafeteria to further explain what your role here will be. There are many jobs that we need help with to win this war. Please follow us."

I turn and make my way inside, giving Russell a small nod as we pass him and the other guards at the entrance. Tori meets us just inside and starts walking with us.

"Any problems?" she asks.

"One of our groups ran into an Erudite patrol. I don't know the specifics, you'll have to ask Uriah it was his group." I explain with a shrug.

"Any casualties?"

"A few traitors and Candor. Not as many Candor as there could have been though. Uriah thought fast and hid them in a building." I respond again.

Just then Uriah and Will join us. "Where's Christina?" I ask them.

"Getting reacquainted with her sister and I think learning some things about how Candor really feels about this war." Will says. Then he adds with a small smirk, "If you thought Christina couldn't keep her mouth shut, you should hear her sister."

I let out a small chuckle. It certainly is going to be interesting having this many Candor in the compound.

We reach the cafeteria and I stop to usher the Candor in. Tobias and Tori go to the front to meet Alec. It is still very early in the morning and there are only a few Dauntless lingering around. Our leaders informed everyone that we might have visitors soon, so they are probably curious how many people came with us.

Uriah, Will and Christina have joined me in standing just inside the cafeteria entrance.

Uriah nudges my shoulder and whispers, "Let's get outta here."

I nod, catching Tobias' gaze quickly and motioning out the door. He gives me an almost imperceptible nod.

Once I'm out the door I am greeted by a loud group of my friends standing in the hallway.

"Dude, you almost got shot, _again._" Zeke playfully shoves his brother.

Uriah groans and complains, "When are you going to give that up?"

"Oh maybe in a year or two when you do something stupider." Marlene teases.

Everyone laughs, including me. It feels good to be with my friends again, to laugh and let go of the tension of war, if only for a little while.

"Come on, since there's a bunch of Candor taking over our Cafeteria lets go back to my apartment." Zeke suggests. "I've got cake."

"Cake! I'm in!" I shout maybe a little too loudly.

"Tris, did you get into the coffee again this morning." Christina jokes with me.

I grin unabashed and we start to make our way down the hall. I forget about Candor, Erudite, war and all our troubles and just enjoy the presence of my new family. My Dauntless family.


	18. Chapter 18

**AN: SO sorry for the long wait for this update. I didn't have internet for a while, but now that I am up and running again I will be updating more like normal. Thank you for the continued support. The reviews I received from the last chapter were wonderful!**

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Tris POV

We are all sitting around in Zeke's apartment talking about nothing of any real importance. Zeke and Uriah have a bet on when the first Dauntless/Candor fight is going to break out. Zeke playfully slaps Uriah on the back making him spit the water he was drinking out all over Christina who is sitting next to him. She shrieks and slaps him on the arm which causes the rest of us to burst into laughter. I have tears in my eyes when a very stressed looking Tobias walks into the room.

"I thought I'd find you here." He mumbles to no one in particular. I assume he is talking to me though and I wipe my eyes while getting up from my spot. I walk over to him and take his hand in mine, looking up into his eyes. They light up when our gazes touch, but that light is almost instantly replaced with the stress and tension of the situation. I notice that the room is now quiet.

"They want to hold another meeting." He states looking from me to Zeke, Uriah and Shauna. Then he turns to Christina. "Your presence has been requested to assist with plans for the Candor additions to Dauntless."

Christina nods in response.

"When?" I ask.

"Now" he says.

Everyone stands without a word. Tobias' words have brought us back to reality. While we have been here in this room, laughing and messing around, the war is still happening and people are still dead.

As everyone leaves the apartment Tobias takes my hand in his and holds me back. "We'll meet you there in a few minutes." He tells Zeke.

Then he pulls me the other direction down the hall. He doesn't say anything and neither do I. When we reach our apartment I open my mouth to ask what we are doing here, but before I can form a word his lips crash into mine. The kiss is not gentle, it is needy. I respond in kind, but he pulls away unlocks the door and guides me inside.

Once inside he turns away from me and the longer he stands facing with his back to me the more I worry. Just as I am about to walk around him he turns around and the look I see in his eyes startles me. His eyes display his emotions and right now I see fear, no, that's not powerful enough, I see terror in his eyes.

"I heard the shots and I thought it was you." He stutters out.

"But it wasn't" I remind him gently.

"But you were there." He says angrily.

"What did you expect me to do?" I question him. "Just stay away and let my friends get hurt?"

His anger evaporates as quickly as it came; now he just looks tired. I am having a hard time keeping up with his shifting emotions. Tobias is normally good as keeping his emotions closed off; he is a little more open with me, but not like this.

Neither of us is really any good with words, so I choose to let actions speak for me. I wrap my arms around his waist and pull him close. His arms wrap around my shoulders and his face is buried in my hair.

"I just can't lose you." He mumbles into my hair. I instantly know this is not just about Candor. This is bigger than one event.

"I know." I whisper back. I know I can't lose him either. Since we found each other we have become more than we ever were alone and I do not want to find out what happens if we get ripped apart. We stand wrapped in each other's arms for a few minutes, both lost in our thoughts. Then the atmosphere shifts and I realize that I am still wearing the clothes I wore to Candor. I feel dirty covered in dust and sweat.

"I should change," I say, unwrapping from our embrace.

"I can help," Tobias exclaims cheekily. I just laugh and walk into the bedroom while taking off my shirt. I close the door in Tobias' face and can imagine the frown that forms.

I am exiting the bedroom, pulling on a sweatshirt of Tobias' when I hear a knock on the door. I glance at the clock and realize that our few minutes have turned into 20 and they must be waiting for us at the meeting. Tobias grumbles and reluctantly opens the door. Zeke stands there with a devilish grin on his face.

"Am I interrupting something?" He chuckles.

My face heats up as I understand what Zeke is insinuating, my hair is tousled from getting dressed and I am in different clothes. Tobias hits Zeke playfully and just shakes his head, although I notice his face has just a small shade of red to it. Zeke just stands there in the doorway smiling like an idiot and wiggling his eyebrows ridiculously. I crack a smile and smack him lightly as I exit the apartment. "In your dreams, Zeke."

"More like, in Four's dreams" he teases back.

We make our way to the meeting room and enter to find everyone engaged in a very loud discussion, more like a yelling match really.

Tobias POV

When we enter the meeting room everyone is yelling, trying to be heard above each other. I have to look twice to make sure that we are in the right room with Dauntless and not the Candor we just brought back. No one seems to notice our arrival and I can't make out what they are arguing about.

"Everyone, Shut up!" yells Tris from beside me. Her voice carries more than you'd expect it to for someone her size and people look up startled. I am beyond being surprised by her presence though and I stand proudly at her side.

Once everyone is quiet and looking at us she continues, "Now that I have your attention. Can someone please explain what all the yelling is about?"

Multiple people start talking at once, clearly trying to get their side of the argument out first and soon it is a jumble again. "Stop" Tris holds up her hand. Her face clearly shows her frustration.

"You first." She says pointing to Tori.

Tris, Zeke and I take the three empty seats near us as Tori starts to speak.

"We were just discussing the Candor additions and how best to house and train them." She pauses and looks towards us. Tris motions for her to continue. "Some of us think it would be best to treat it like another initiation process, while others think we should be more _humane_." The sarcasm in her voice is rich when she says humane, leaving clear her position. I am inclined to agree with her though. We are at war and we need these people to be able to hold their own against Dauntless traitors. I look around the room trying to gauge people's emotions and positions.

"Okay, raise of hands. Who is for the traditional route?" Tris asks. I am mesmerized by the fact that she is leading this discussion with the poise and grace of a true leader. I almost forget to raise my hand until I hear her counting beside me. I raise my hand quickly earning me a quizzical look from her.

She just keeps going though and no one is stopping her. "Okay that's six for. Those against the traditional route?" I take notice of the people who raise their hands now. I am actually surprised to see that it is Shauna, Will and Christina.

"You didn't vote, Tris." Christina points out with her hand still raised.

"Yes, well it doesn't matter my position, we still have a majority." Tris points out.

"Maybe not, but I'd like to know." Christina insists.

"If you have to know, I am inclined to agree with the traditional route." Tris states plainly. Her eyes never leave Christina's while she speaks. I notice the hurt look on Christina's face as Tris finishes. I guess Christina thought Tris would side with her and maybe I would side with Tris.

"But it's not logical." Will cuts into the conversation.

"Why not?" asks Tris.

"Because we want these people to want to help us, why would we want to scare them away?" he answers.

I can tell Tris isn't in a mood to deal with this situation anymore, her eyes roam over the crowd willing anyone else to counter Will's argument, but no one says anything. They all just stare at Tris waiting for her response.

"You want logical." She replies. "I don't want to go into a fight against former Dauntless with someone by my side unless I know that person is capable and willing to shoot or fight to kill. I hope it doesn't come to that, but we cannot baby these people into being soldiers." Her voice is cold and emotionless. I can tell from the tension in her posture that she doesn't enjoy this idea; in fact I am almost positive she loathes it, but her Erudite is showing. "Besides, if they fail training, it's not like they'll become factionless, we'll just find other work for them to do around the compound."

Will listens silently to her argument and I can see the logic of her explanation takes over his logic. He gives no further argument and with that, the matter is decided. As this has been going on I have come to realize that Tris has done what none of our current faction leaders did. She has solved this problem quickly and decisively. "I think we should elect two more Dauntless leaders." I speak my thoughts without really meaning to.

Tori looks at me a little shocked at the suggestion. "Why do you think we need to do that?" she questions.

"Because Tris here just managed to solve a problem that none of us," I gesture between her, myself and Alec, "were able to solve. In fact when I walked in here, you and Alec had lost complete control of the situation. So I nominate Tris for leader."

"I second that." Zeke stands up as he speaks.

"All in favor?" I ask. As soon as the words leave my mouth every single person in the room, aside from Tori, Alec and Tris stand. "It's decided then. And since we need an odd number, any other nominations?"

"Zeke." Tris says.

I am not surprised, Zeke is one of the more experienced Dauntless in the room and being Dauntless born is to his advantaged. I am surprised however with Zeke's response.

He waves it off with his hand and says, "I appreciate the sentiment and all Tris, but I was never born to lead."

"Anyone else?" I ask.

Christina is the next to speak. "Uriah."

"I second." Says Will. And then it's decided. Our leadership now consists of five instead of three. Tori and Alec look disgruntled, but we all ignore them and the daggers they shoot at Tris and Uriah.

"Okay so what do we need to accomplish during this meeting?" I ask the group. People start shouting out ideas and I notice Tris next to me frantically writing them down. Once everyone is finished, we have a list that I know is going to take us hours to get through, and that's without any issues arising.

1. Candor housing and training  
2. Assign duties to get Dauntless Compound up and running  
3. Reasons behind Erudite attack  
4. Higher security for compound  
Training  
6. Contact Amity  
7. Timeline for attack on Erudite  
8. Gathering information from Erudite

As predicted 3 hours later we are all exhausted and worn out. It is now midday and most of us have been up since yesterday morning. There have been many arguments and we still haven't worked out everything on our list, but some things are settled for now.

The Candor who came to fight will be housed in dormitories like initiates. Tris, Christina, Uriah and I will be in charge of training them. There will still be three stages of training, but at an accelerated pace. We have also decided that any Candor members, we or the other leaders deem unfit will be assigned other positions besides as soldiers.

Shauna and Zeke have agreed to take on a main role in getting the compound up and running smoothly. Both of them being Dauntless born will help tremendously.

We wracked our brains for hours, but no one has come up with any logical reasons as to why Erudite came into the compound, shot people with tranquilizers and then left without taking anything. Tris wasn't ready to give up on that question yet, but the rest of us are sick of thinking about it. I think we're too Dauntless to admit we have no idea how to think like Erudite's.

The last thing we talk about is contacting Amity. We all agree that it will be more dangerous now that Erudite knows we are contacting the other factions. This also means that it is more important for us to continue with our plan to go to Amity tonight. The more time we give Erudite to prepare, the more likely they are of stopping us. Though, instead of going stealth we are going to Amity with force. I am more than a little pleased with this idea, because it means more protection for Tris. Although, I know she would hate me if I ever admitted that to her.

Tris and Dee will lead a group of us first into Amity in an attempt to meet with Johanna, the leader of their faction. Another group of Dauntless will provide the physical support should that be necessary, that group will be led by Russell and Zeke. We resolve to meet up tonight at 10 o'clock to finish planning the details, before finally leaving the meeting room. The mood amongst most of us has lightened considerably since the beginning. I watch Christina approach Tris and start talking to her animatedly about some topic. I notice however, Tori and Alec standing slightly apart from everyone else and it appears they are arguing about something. It worries me, because out of everyone, I know that those two are the most Dauntless of this group, they are the most likely to be reckless, and to act without thinking. I make a mental note to keep an eye on them from now on.

Someone's hand on my arm jars me from my thoughts. I look down to see Tris' eyes looking at me with curiosity. She glances in the direction my gaze was and her brow furrows. "What's with those two?" She wonders out loud, but more to herself. She looks back at me and my only answer is a shrug.

She glances back towards Tori and Alec, but only for a moment, before Uriah, Christina and Will join us.

"Let's go get some food!" Uriah howls. Everyone laughs at Uriah and his food addiction.

We make our way to the cafeteria and I listen to Christina and Tris chatter about training the Candor, or rather I listen to Christina as Tris only interjects minimal comments. I know Tris thinks of Christina as a sister, but I wonder not for the first time how Tris and Christina became such close friends, and so quickly. Tris catches my eye and rolls hers with a smile on her face. Her smile lets me know, that although she is slightly annoyed, she doesn't need rescuing quite yet. I smile back at her.

My smile vanishes as soon as we walk through the doors to the cafeteria. People are gathered around one side and Dauntless in the crowd are chanting and stomping their feet. I push my way quickly through the crowd to be met with a gruesome site. A Dauntless member I only vaguely recognize is standing over a Candor member. The Candor is lying unmoving on the ground with blood and bruises. I grab the Dauntless man by the collar of his shirt and roughly throw him against the wall. I barely register Tris rushing past me to the Candor member on the ground.

"He's alive." She breathes in relief after feeling tentatively for a pulse. Then Shauna rushes forward, her nursing training taking over immediately.

I turn to the man in front of me, "What the hell is this about?" I demand in my deadly instructor voice. To the man's credit as a Dauntless he doesn't flinch, but responds.

"He insulted me. So I showed him how we deal with those things here in Dauntless." He mocks.

"We do not beat unsuspecting people to a pulp, people who are willing to come help us win this war." I spit at him, I am still deadly calm, but this doesn't seem to be registering in his thick Dauntless brain.

My hands begin to form fists at my sides and the next thing I know I have thrown the first punch. We begin fighting, I take note of the excitement gleaming in his eyes. He enjoys this part of Dauntless, as do I. In a twisted way I enjoy the power I get from a good fight. Adrenaline rushes through me as he tries to take a swing at me and I easily block it. I send a crushing blow into his stomach. His breath catches but only for a moment before his elbow collides with my jaw. He landed a solid hit, but this only causes my anger to spike and my fist rams into the side of his head. My vision is red with anger and power. I know I delivered a blow that would have most people out cold, but to my surprise he stays on his feet and charges at me. I'm caught off-guard and we land hard on the ground. He is taller and broader than I am, and I struggle beneath him for a second. In that second his fist collides with my face and I can feel my eye beginning to swell. He shifts his weight and I see my opening. I lift my knee forcefully and make solid contact with his stomach again, this time I don't hesitate before lifting myself off the ground and sending a vicious kick right to the side of his head.

The first kick does nothing to dissolve my anger though and I send another kick into his side, just as I am about to kick him again strong hands grasp my arms. I struggle against them until a smaller pair of familiar hands grasps my waist. I turn suddenly to look into her eyes. She doesn't turn away from me, but I hate what I see reflected in her eyes. There is anger and fear. This is the first time I have lost control in front of her and she is afraid of this part of me. Breathing heavily I push her hands off my waist. I ignore the hurt that bleeds into her eyes as I stumble past her and a stunned Zeke and out of the cafeteria. I don't think as I walk, I let my feet guide me until I reach their destination. Only when I see where I am, do I want to turn and run. I am at the bottom of the chasm, near the spot I first kissed her and all I can see right now is the fear that was in her eyes when I turned towards her. I sink down onto the rocks and break down like I haven't done since the first time Marcus hit me.


	19. Chapter 19

**AN: I received two wonderful reviews on my last chapter. Thank you! Thank you also for everyone who has stuck with this story, your support keeps me writing. **

**Enjoy! :-)**

Tris POV

"He's alive." I say with a sigh of relief. I can't imagine what kind of problems we'd have if, on their first day here, a Candor member got themselves killed. Although I suppose that's unfair; even though I think Candors are a bunch of loud mouths, this man didn't deserve the beating he received, and it certainly wasn't a fair fight.

The smell of fresh blood permeates the air and I flash back to Abnegation. I stumble back as the memory assaults me and I'm only vaguely aware of Uriah catching my arm before I can fall. I shake my head to dispel the memory and shoot Uriah a small smile as thanks. He looks at me concerned, but I just shake my head to indicate that I don't want to talk about it.

I turn my attention to the scene in front of me, just in time to see Tobias' foot connect with the side of a man's head. I assume it is the same man who is responsible for the Candor man's injuries. I quickly scan Tobias' body, checking for any signs that he's been injured. Thankfully, aside from him breathing heavily and a bruise forming on his jaw he seems untouched. Then I catch the look in his eyes and my heart stops in my chest. His eyes are full of rage and power, and they are like black pits. They are not Tobias' eyes, but those of Marcus from Tobias' fear landscape.

Before I can comprehend what is happening Zeke is struggling with Tobias, trying to get him to stop attacking the Dauntless man. I quickly go to where they are struggling and without thinking I place my hands on Tobias' waist. He spins around, his focus shifting from the fight to me. In the first second he looks at me, I flinch with the knowledge that my eyes show the fear I was just experiencing at seeing Marcus' eyes. Even though I know what he must see on my face, it still hurts when he pushes my hands off of him and storms out of the cafeteria.

I immediately go to follow him, only to be stopped by a strong hand on my arm. Angry, I spin around and face a pensive Zeke. "Just let him cool off." He tells me. I have no intentions of leaving Tobias alone though, and I snap an angry glare toward Zeke before shaking his hand off.

"I can take care of myself, Zeke." I spit at him. He just shakes his head and turns around to speak with Uriah.

Once I leave the cafeteria I realize that Zeke stalled me just enough that Tobias has disappeared. I want to find him, but I'm not sure what I'm going to say to him when I do. I try to think of where he might go; I know he'll want to be alone. I decide to check our apartment first. When I arrive, I am disappointed to find the apartment empty and just how we left it hours ago. I look around struggling to decide where to look next, when there is a knock at the door.

I cautiously open the door, not sure if whoever it is, is looking for me or Tobias, and I'm not really in a mood to deal with anyone right now either.

"Oh good you're here." Christina utters.

"Listen Christina I'm not in a mood to deal with anyone or anything right now, can it wait." I say impatiently.

"Sorry, but we need someone to help calm down the situation in the cafeteria." She says apologetically.

I throw my hands up in the air, frustrated that everyone expects me to do everything. "Seriously, if I remember correctly I left three other leaders in the cafeteria."

"Yeah, well, the Candor members want to speak with you personally. I don't think they really trust Tori and Alec, and Uriah is trying to manage two against one."

"Fine," I huff. "Tell them I will meet with five of their representatives in a half hour. I need to find Tobias first."

Christina nods and then practically sprints out the door to the cafeteria. Exhaustion sweeps over me and I sink down on the edge of the bed, though as soon as I am seated, an idea of where I might find Tobias comes to me. I rush out the door, hastily locking it behind me, and hurry towards the Pit. When I get there, I have to wade through the crowds of Dauntless now rushing around carrying supplies and chattering. I make my way carefully down the path at the chasm, and then I see him sitting in our spot.

I pause, take in a deep breath and observe his posture, the sag of his shoulders and trembling of his body. Slowly, and with caution, as if approaching a wounded animal, I make my way over to sit next to Tobias on the flat rock. He doesn't look at me or make any movement at all; it frightens me a little. I've never seen him so still before.

I reach over to his hands, which are folded in his lap, and take one of his in mine.

"Why?" he whispers, almost inaudibly.

"Why, what?" I reply

"Why do you stay with me?"

I'm taken aback and not entirely sure how to answer his question. I know of course why I stay with him, and we've had conversation along these lines before, but this feels like something different.

"You know why."

"No, actually I don't! I don't understand how you can stay with me after…" His voice starts out loud and falls to a quiet whisper at the end.

I take his chin in my hand, mimicking the move he uses with me, when he wants me to look him in the eye. Still he refuses to meet my gaze.

"Look at me, Tobias." I command. My tone surprises me, but it works, his eyes snap up to meet mine. His eyes are red and puffy and it is clear he has been crying. I am momentarily stunned; I've never seen Tobias cry before. Instead of focusing on that fact, I try to focus on all the different emotions swimming in his eyes; I am having a difficult time reading him right now.

"I love you and stay with you, because of who you are." I'm interrupted by him making a sound of disagreement. I glare at him, telling him to shut up and listen. "Tobias, no one is perfect, not you, not me, no one. But being perfect isn't the point. We can only try our best to be who we want to be." I pause searching for the right words.

Tobias POV

I am having a hard time believing what Tris is telling me; after I saw the fear in her eyes I feel like now I know how she truly feels about me. She must finally realize what I've known all along, I don't deserve her. When she pauses and seems at a loss for words, it only fuels my current beliefs. Then she starts speaking and at first I barely hear what she says.

"You told me once that you wanted to be brave, honest, intelligent, selfless and kind. Is this still true?"

…

"Tobias."

Hearing my name snaps me out of my thoughts. "What?"

"Is it still true that you want to be brave, honest, intelligent, selfless _and_ kind?"

I think for a moment, and while I don't know if it is even possible for me to be all of those things, it is true that I want to try. "Yes."

"Then that is what matters most, your intentions."

I am silent, still not sure what to say.

"I know that it's hard for you to understand my love for you, but that's only because you've never known true love before. I have. I've experienced it in the way my father would kiss my head in the mornings and tuck me in bed at night. Or in the way my mother would cut my hair or sing me to sleep."

Tris' breathing is starting to come more heavily and her eyes become misty. I can tell she is struggling with memories of her parents now that they are gone. All I want in this moment is to comfort her and for a second I forget about what has happened the past few hours. I fold my arms around her and pull her gently to my chest. Her hands clutch my t-shirt like a lifeline as she lets out a strangled sob. We sit there for a few minutes while she regains her composure.

Tris' voice is quiet when she speaks again, "and this, this is love, you comforting me, being there for me, even when there is so many more important things going on around us."

"Nothing is more important to me than you." I argue with her.

She just looks up at me and love radiates off of her entire being. All I want is to be worthy of the love that she gives me and love her in return.

Our moment is interrupted by a voice shouting from the top of the chasm.

"Tris! Four! Get your butts up here!"

I groan. "Why are we always being interrupted?"

Tris chuckles from beside me as she begins to stand. I take her offered hand and she helps me up. We make our way hand in hand to the top of the chasm where we are greeted by Zeke, Shauna and Christina.

"Sorry to interrupt you guys, but the Candor members are waiting for you Tris." Christina apologizes.

"Waiting for Tris?" I ask confused.

"Yeah apparently she made quite the impression in Candor and now they only trust her." Uriah explains while giving Tris a playful shove. She shoves him back a little harder and just rolls her eyes to me.

We make our way to the conference room above the pit. We are met by a very angry Alec and a tense Tori. Alec approaches Tris as soon as we are visible.

"What the hell makes you so special, _Stiff."_

"Excuse me." Tris returns angrily. The rest of us just stand their speechless.

"You haven't even been in Dauntless half a year and you are already our _leader_. What makes you worthy of that title or of speaking to the Candor alone on our behalf?"

"If I have to remind you, I was a Dauntless ambassador before all this shit started, and I came in first in my training class." Tris spits at him.

"So what, you are just a Stiff, you'll never be truly Dauntless." Alec steps closer to Tris with a menacing look on his face.

I take a step closer to them, prepared to jump into action if need be. Alec makes a move to strike Tris, but before I can react she throws a punch and hits him squarely in the jaw.

"How _dare _you tell me I am not Dauntless."

"A true Dauntless isn't afraid of death, they never would have let their Stiff parents die for them."

"Shut up!" Tris screams as she lunges for Alec lost in rage. He is prepared for her attack and he redirects her movement straight into the wall behind him. There is a loud crunch as her head crashes into the solid stone. Alec makes to hit her, but Zeke being the closest to them now grabs his arms behind his back. Tris lazily sinks to the ground and I rush over to her. Her eyes are unfocused as she looks at me and she tries to say something to me, but it comes out in a jumble.

"shhh it's okay." I try to reassure her, as Shauna and Christina kneel down next to us. I release Tris into Christina's embrace and immediately turn on Tori.

"What the hell was that all about!"

"All I know is pretty much what you just saw."

"You mean the part where Alec attacked Tris!" I shout enraged

"Calm down Four. I meant the part about Alec not agreeing with Tris being a leader."

"Seriously you're telling me to calm down right now! You've got to be kidding me." I get in Tori's face prepared for another fight. Tori looks at me levelly. Not saying anything or making any moves.

"Four stop, Tris needs you right now." Christina places a hand on my shoulder.

As I turn from Tori to look at Christina I notice several Candor members have exited the briefing room and are staring at the commotion we've created. I also notice that Alec and Zeke are no longer here and neither is Tris.

"Where is she?"

"Uriah and Shauna took her to the infirmary."

"Can you talk to them?" I ask Christina motioning to the Candor members still watching us curiously.

"Yeah, yeah. Go." She urges me.

Once I arrive at the infirmary, I am greeted by an older Dauntless woman, who smiles before asking me whom I am looking for.

"Tris Prior" I tell her, and she motions me towards a curtained area.

"4th curtain on the left." I thank her and make my way there. I peek around the curtain and see Tris laying on a bed with her eyes closed. I wonder for a moment if she is asleep, but then her eyes pop open. She sluggishly surveys the space around her until her eyes light upon me.

"Hey." She croaks.

"Hi, how are you feeling?" I ask as I approach her.

"Fine, except for feeling like someone bashed in my head."

"Well someone kind of did."

"Yeah, _again."_ She groans.

I chuckle slightly before being stopped by a death glare from her. I put my hand to my mouth to stop a laugh from escaping and I sit down in a chair next to Tris' bed. A few minutes later Shauna walks in from the other side of the curtain.

"Oh, hi Four. Don't worry she's fine, just a mild concussion."

"That doesn't sound fine to me."

"Yeah, well she won't be going to Amity tonight, but she'll be fine in a couple days."

"But, we have to go tonight." Tris argues.

"Yes, _we _have to go. _You_ will stay here." I tell her.

"But-"

"No buts." I state firmly.

She doesn't say anymore, but the look she gives me, tells me she isn't happy and I will hear about this later.

I kiss her gently on the forehead and brush my fingertips along her cheek. "Get some rest." I tell her. She must be tired because I don't have to wait long before she falls asleep. Once I'm sure she's asleep I get up from my chair and walk out to find Shauna.

"Make sure she doesn't leave." I whisper to her. Shauna smiles slyly at me and nods. I thank her and make my wait out of the infirmary to find the others. We need to finish our plans for Amity tonight and I need to make sure that everything goes smoothly without Tris there to guide us.


	20. Chapter 20

**AN: Thank you for the reviews, favorites and follows! I finally had my epiphany moment for this story and I am very excited about where things will be going in the near future.**

**Enjoy! :-)**

Tobias POV

It's darker tonight as we jump on the train headed towards the fence. The clouds obscure any light that may have broken through and the blackness of the night only adds to the foreboding feeling that's been building in my gut since this afternoon. After I left Tris in the infirmary I met with the others to decide who would be going to Amity tonight and what the plan of attack would be. We finally were able to decide on having three groups. The first led by Dee, would head straight to the Amity compound and try to find Johanna, the "leader" of Amity. That group would be the smallest with only Dee, Uriah, Marlene, myself and surprisingly a representative from Candor named Anthony. Neither Candor nor Dauntless has a great report with Amity, but the idea is that if we can show them we are working together for peace they will side with us.

Our other two groups consist of a slightly larger "security" group, who will stealthily follow us into Amity and another slightly larger group who will guard the fence and hopefully provide advance warning if Erudite is coming. Tori demanded that she hasn't been playing an active enough role and that she should lead one of the groups. It took us almost a whole hour to figure that situation out.

_Flashback_

_"Okay, we know what our groups will be, but I think each group should have a leader. Any nominations?" I state._

_"I would like to lead the group going into Amity." Dee speaks up. I am surprised, I don't know Dee very well, but this is the first time she has really voiced any opinion at all or wanted a larger role in anything._

_"Okay. Any objections?" I question the group._

_"Shouldn't _leaders _be leading the groups?" Tori pipes up._

_I give her my best death glare, after what happened with Alec and Tris, I don't trust Tori._

_"I volunteer to be in that group, but I think Dee should lead." Uriah offers. Most of us nod in agreement._

_"Fine. But then I want to lead the security group following them into Amity." Tori demands._

_"Absolutely not." I answer firmly._

_"And why not, Four?" _

_"Because I don't trust you watching my back. Zeke you will lead the security group."_

_"Zeke refused his leadership offer, I rank above him. I will lead that group." Tori says as she stands up. "Any of you who dares to say otherwise will have to deal with me."_

_"Stop!" Shauna shouts. I turn to look at her astonished by the tone in her voice. I don't think I've heard Shauna yell more than a couple times. "You two are acting like children and seem to have forgotten that the rest of us are here for a reason. I say let's put it to a vote."_

_"Okay, all in favor of Tori __**not**__ being a group leader?" I say sarcastically._

_"Wait Four. I say our options are for Tori leading one of the two groups. All in favor?"_

_I scowl at everyone around the table as I see all their hands go up. That is everyone except for Christina's who looks as pissed as I feel. _

_End Flashback_

I lean back against the cool wall of the train, remembering the chastisement I received from Shauna after that meeting and the betrayal I felt for myself and Tris when all of our friends sided with Tori. Everyone except Christina. I make my way across the train to where she stands at the opening.

"Why didn't you vote for Tori to lead one of the groups?" I ask her quietly, I am not usually curious, but I am still trying to figure out Christina and Tris' relationship.

She shrugs in response and then adds, "I don't trust her."

"Me neither. Stay close to her tonight at the fence."

Christina looks up at me with a curious look on her face. I know she is reading me like only a true Candor could, but I maintain eye contact with her until she nods once and turns to look back at the passing buildings. Soon we make it to the fence and we all jump off; no one says a word as we gather into our groups. Dee immediately starts jogging towards Amity and I follow. I notice as we run that our Candor team member doesn't have much trouble keeping pace and I feel hopeful for the first time that maybe these people can be a real asset.

We quickly make our way into Amity and Dee slows down to a crouched walked. She seems to know exactly where she is going and I conclude she must have transferred from Amity. It makes more sense now why she would want to lead this group. We approach a long building with lots of windows that I assume is the housing complex for Amity. Dee motions for us to hide at the side of the building while she crawls up to a window and taps four times then three then five more.

I can't see the window from the angle we are at, but moments later Dee approaches us and whispers, "They will meet us by the apple orchard in ten minutes with Johanna."

"Who's they?" Anthony asks.

"Friends." Is the only reply Dee gives before leading us towards a copse of trees a little to the right of the building.

Ten minutes feels like hours as the night seems to become darker and the silence of the orchard is broken by the wind howling through the branches. It is a cold night and being inactive for so long isn't something I particularly enjoy. Finally, Uriah whistles from his post up in a tree, the signal that our _friends_ are approaching. Dee greets a man who looks like her with a tight hug and a warm smile, confirming my suspicions that she was an Amity transfer.

"Everyone, this is my brother Daniel." Dee introduces us. We nod in greeting, but nothing further can be said before another woman begins to speak, who I recognize from when I used to attend government meetings with my father in Abnegation.

"Hello, I am Johanna Reyes. I must warn you we don't have much time. Erudite has been here since this afternoon warning us that you would be coming and demanding we inform them when you did."

I quickly look around me, immediately ready for an attack and I notice Uriah doing the same. Dee however appears relaxed.

"Please, I do not mean to alarm you unduly, we have not informed them of your presence. Quite the opposite we are attempting to keep it a secret. We do not agree with Erudite's plans for this war, but we need them, so outwardly we will be sided with them. –"

"I think we should be going then." I state grimly.

"Please, wait. We want to extend an offer to Dauntless and to Candor." She turns towards Anthony as she speaks. "We want to provide you with food and water secretly. It's the best we can offer at this time."

"How will this take place?" I ask skeptically.

"Dee can explain all of that once you return to Dauntless. There isn't enough time for –" **BANG, BANG.**

Two shots ring out loudly through the night air, punctuating her words about there not being enough time. I have my gun in my hand a second later as I crouch down trying to find the attackers. I hear a muffled scream come from close behind me and I whip around in time to see Tori, with a knife in the back of a traitor Dauntless. Her eyes are fierce and I know instantly that she just saved my life. I jump slightly as Marlene lands next to me from her perch in the tree.

"There is a larger group headed this way we need to leave now." She says urgently.

"Go." Johanna shouts.

"Let's head back to the fence." Uriah says.

"No, it's been completely overrun by Erudite. We won't make it back through." Tori tells us.

I round on her, grabbing her arm roughly. "And you just left your team there, to what, die!" I growl.

She shakes me off with anger equal to mine. "Of course not Four! They are waiting for us at the edge of the orchard."

There isn't time for me to feel the guilt that I want to feel at accusing Tori of leaving her team behind. She just saved my life and proved that she is capable of leading a group of people when things go wrong. I shake off the uneasy feelings and we quickly make our way through the orchard.

It seems like fate is against us tonight, for the moon has escaped from its hiding place behind the clouds, illuminating the orchard. We no longer have the darkness to our advantage. As we run, I hear more shots ring out. I slow my pace and move to the back of the group searching for the source of the shots. I spot a man ten yards away, gun raised, taking aim, but I am quicker than him and before he can shoot I put a bullet through my target. I don't look twice at the man I know I just killed, I know it was self-defense, but I can't stop the bile that rises in my throat. It feels like I am in my fear landscape, only there is no waking up from this, and these are not innocent lives.

We reach the end of the orchard and meet up with both the fence group and our security group, who are taking heavy fire from Erudite near the fence line. I didn't even think twice until now, as to why Zeke and his group hadn't appeared to help us after the first shots rang out. I take cover behind a large tree, looking around the group, quickly taking note than our numbers are smaller than when we left Dauntless.

"Where do we go from here?" Someone shouts. More shots continue to bite the silence. I fire my own weapon at the Erudite. I don't pay attention to where my bullets land, I know how good of a shot I am and I know I am killing more people.

"There's a hole in the fence about a mile from here. It's near the tracks; if we can make it there in 10 minutes, we'll make the next train." Dee explains quickly.

"Let's go!" I yell to the group.

Dee leads us in a sprint to the west. It doesn't take the Erudite long to figure out they are no longer being shot at and are soon in pursuit. I hear rather than see another of our group fall and I cautiously look back to see Christina, struggling to help Anthony stand up. Before I can react Tori is at Anthony's other side helping him along with Christina. Before long, we make it to the opening in the fence and hastily shuffle through, just in time to see the train approaching. We don't have time to waste. Erudite is advancing on us from the other side of the fence. Taking cover behind some old trashcans we open fire at the opening in the fence, deterring any of them from coming through.

The train speeds towards us as I count the seconds of its approach. It's too long, I don't know how much longer we will be able to hold them off. On cue I run out of bullets, I reach for my spare clip in by boot, only to realize I have already ran through that one too. I notice several others have stopped firing and Erudite is starting to come through the fence. The train is still ten seconds away at best. Bullets fly by as I crouch behind the trashcan. I feel cowardly hiding here; not fighting back, but I have nothing to fight their bullets with, certainly my bare hands wouldn't be much use.

Thankfully, the train is finally here, rushing by, whipping a chilling wind through me. We all start to jump on the train, but I wait for most of the others, before joining Christina, Tori and Anthony. I grab Anthony by the arm and haul him in with me, I quickly turn to extend a hand to Christina, who is clutching the railing next to me, and in that split second, an Erudite running along the tracks manages to get off one more shot. It hits Christina, and I see her grip falter. I grab for her, falling back into the train car carrying her with me. We land forcefully and I feel something wet soaking into the front of my shirt. Belatedly, I wish I hadn't looked down. I don't want to see the red blood of my girlfriend's best friend on me. Christina whimpers quietly in my embrace. I roll over and gently place her on the ground. Dee and her brother come over and he quickly goes to work, assessing and treating her wound. All I can do is hold her hand and hope that she can make it. I don't know what Tris would do if she lost Christina.

"Tell Tris and Will…" Christina sputters and I have to lean down to hear her. "tell them that I love them." And then her eyes drift closed.


	21. Chapter 21

**AN: Thank you for all the reviews. I do want to say that while I love reviews even constructive criticism, I don't love negative reviews with threats. With that said to the guest who left me that review, I already have this story planned and a couple chapters written in advance so while I sometimes take suggestions and change little things I won't change big things. I hope everyone out there is enjoying this story, sorry for the extra long note. **

**Enjoy! :-)**

Trips POV

I fall asleep moments after Tobias tells me to rest, my body's exhaustion and pain overcoming my desire to be a part of the trip to Amity. My sleep is heavy, deep, but filled with nightmares, real and imagined. I relive my parent's deaths, the trip to Candor, and then I watch as my friends are killed one by one. Lastly, Tobias is standing in front of me, his expression is grim. I see a faceless man standing behind him holding a gun to his head. I try to run towards him, but I am stopped by strong hands holding my arms. I struggle for a moment before a shot rings out and Tobias falls to the ground in front of me, his eyes are lifeless unseeing orbs. My breath catches and the faceless man morphs into someone who haunts my nightmares often, Peter. I release a strangled scream and jump awake. My whole body is shaking with residual grief from the dream and a cold sweat covers my body. It takes several moments before I register that there is a commotion outside of my curtained area. I slowly get off the bed, ignoring the throbbing in my head, and peak around the curtain.

I am met with a gruesome sight and at first I think I must still be dreaming. I pinch my arm hoping to wake myself up, but nothing changes. People are running every direction, shouting orders. I see a Candor man, Anthony I think is his name, being carried by on a rolling bed. He looks ghostly pale and has blood covering his clothing. I hear voices coming from my right and I turn to look at what's going on. Before I can see anything I hear his voice, I could never miss it. He comes around the corner following another bed surrounded by a group of doctors. My heart stops in my chest as I take in the sight of him. His hair is disheveled, eyes wild, but what really catches my attention is the red covering his shirt and hands.

"Tobias" I whisper, not loudly enough for anyone to hear, but as soon as his name leaves my lips his eyes snap up to meet mine. I see concern and dread written on his face and his eyes flash back to the bed before quickly meeting mine again. My eyes follow the path of his and any feeling I had left in my limbs, leaves me. My legs crumble beneath me and I start to fall. He is by my side in an instant and catches me before I fully hit the floor.

Without a word he gently picks me up and carries me behind the curtain. He sits down on the bed with me still in his arms. Even though I can no longer see what is happening on the other side of the curtain, I can still hear it. I untangle his arm from around me and start to stand up.

"Tris" he says as he grabs my arm lightly, holding me in place. I don't turn to face him as I reply.

"I can't stay here Tobias. I need to get out." He nods and keeps his hand on my arm as we stand together. He goes past the curtain first making sure that the coast is clear before leading me out of the infirmary and towards our apartment. Neither of us speaks until we are seated on the couch in the living room.

"What happened?" I ask slowly, unsure that I want to know.

"Erudite was prepared for us." Tobias responds simply.

"But we knew they would likely be there. Weren't you prepared?"

Tobias winces slightly at my words and somewhere in the back of my mind I realize that this isn't his fault, but right now I need someone to blame and he's here.

His words are calm as he responds. "Of course we were prepared Tris, but so were they and we were outnumbered. We are lucky we didn't lose more."

"Didn't lose more?! Because the ones _you _lost aren't enough! Because my best friend isn't enough!" I scream at him. Rational thought escapes me right now as I seethe in anger at his calm, nonchalant behavior. I get up and start pacing back and forth in front of the couch. Tobias tries to catch my arm and pull me back to the couch with him, but I can't sit still right now and I can't be consoled. That would make this too real, I need something else to focus on. I make the decision to find someone else who can tell me what happened in Amity so I can start preparing for what's next. I move toward the door.

"Tris, where are you going?" Tobias pleads with me.

"I need to do something, anything right now." I explain quietly.

"I'll come with you."

"No, stay here you need to rest." I tell him taking in the bags under his eyes and his sagging posture.

"Stay with me?" he whispers.

I instantly feel guilty, but I know what I need right now is space. "I'm sorry, I need to go alone." I tell him before slipping out the door.

I walk quickly through the hallways, searching for anyone who went to Amity and might be able to tell me what happened. I enter the cafeteria and spot Dee sitting at a table with a man I've never seen before dressed in Amity colors. I make my way over to their table and sit down across from them.

"Oh hey Tris. I thought you'd still be in the infirmary." Dee greets.

I cringe slightly at her mention of the place I basically ran away from. "I wanted to know about Amity and get the ball rolling." I reply.

"Sure, oh, this is my brother Daniel. Daniel this is Tris, the girl I told you about." I give Dee a funny look wondering what she means when she says, I'm the one she told him about.

"It's nice to meet you Tris." Daniel says with a warm smile.

"You too." I try to return the smile, knowing that it must look like more of a grimace right now.

"Come on, let's go up to the meeting room so we can talk." Dee stands up as she speaks and Daniel and I follow.

Once we are situated in the room at one end of the table, Dee tells me everything that happened in Amity. I keep a lid on all my emotions until she gets to the part about Christina being shot. My eyes start to fill up with tears, and I try to hold them back. Until I remember the scene in the infirmary and they start to run free. Once it's started I can't stop, without saying anything Dee gets up from her seat, walks over to me and wraps her arms around me. She runs her hands through my hair, just like my mother used to do, and this makes me think of my parent's being dead. All of the emotions I have been keeping bottled up, continue to come out. It takes several minutes before the tears subside and my breathing evens out again. Dee releases me with a gentle smile on her face, but I see no pity and for that I am grateful.

"So what's next?" Daniel asks, interrupting my thoughts.

"Now we plan for war." I state simply.

"Let's get to work." Dee adds.

…

Several hours later, I am not sure of really how many, Dee and Daniel have left to get some sleep, and Zeke, Shauna, Uriah and Marlene have taken their places at the table I'm working at. I have a large map of the city spread out in front of me. With help from Daniel I have marked several locations that Amity has decided they can safely get to, to exchange supplies with us. It is their plan to give us food and water in exchange for weapons and knowledge of the war. We are all surprised that Amity wants weapons, but apparently there are those amongst them, who want to be able to defend themselves if the time comes. The first exchange will be in three days near the Candor section of the city.

I look up as the door opens again, revealing a slightly better looking Tobias. The dark circles under his eyes are still there, but less pronounced and it looks like he has taken a shower. I feel bad for the way I left him earlier, and to show that I am sorry I get up quickly and walk over to him. He opens his arms for me as I approach and I cuddle into him laying my head against his chest, listening to the sound of his steady heartbeat.

"I'm sorry, for earlier, I was…"

"Tris, shh it's okay." He tells me before kissing me passionately. We are interrupted a second later by several people clearing their throats behind me. I pull away from Tobias and look over at my friends sitting at the table. They are all smiling devilishly at us and I feel my face heat up. Before anyone can say anything the door opens again.

Will walks in with puffy, tired eyes.

"How is she?" I ask sheepishly. I am ashamed that in the past several hours I have tried to push thoughts of my best friend from my mind. It was too painful for me, but I should have been there for her and for Will.

"She's out of surgery. They say she's stable, but critical. Our medical supplies and technology aren't as good as Erudite." He explains in a defeated voice.

"We need to get more supplies from Erudite." Uriah spits out.

"And how do you suggest we do that Uriah." Zeke rounds on his brother.

"We break in obviously."

"Don't you think they'll be expecting us?" Shauna asks.

"Probably, but that's why we have to get in in the most illogical way." I add. Everyone looks at me like I've grown a second head. "Seriously, they're Erudite, they can only think logically."

"She's got a point." Uriah agrees.

"No, it's too dangerous." Tobias finally speaks up.

"It could save Christina's life, and in case you haven't noticed we're in a war, we'll need more medical supplies eventually." Will says angrily to Tobias.

"It's settled, we'll go tonight." I say.

"Tris, please." Tobias says, begging me with his eyes.

"No Tobias, I can't just sit here and let Christina die."

"But it's more likely that more people will get hurt going to Erudite. Christina wouldn't want that." Marlene argues. I can tell she is sick of Uriah going off, to God knows where, getting shot at just as much as Tobias is sick of me doing the same.

"I'm going. Anyone who wants to join me, feel free to stay and help us plan. Anyone else can leave or shut up." I say angrily.

Marlene gives me a death glare and I can feel Tobias' eyes nearly burning a hole in the side of my head, but I refuse to turn and look at him. Before we can begin planning we are interrupted by a loud alarm sounding throughout the compound. I instantly tense thinking that Erudite may be attacking the compound again. We all jump up and run out the door. I am the first down the path into the Pit. I grab the first person I see.

"What's going on?" I shout over the alarm.

I am answered by a voice coming over the speaker system. "Dauntless listen closely. We have taken Abnegation and now Amity. We now control your government and your food and water supply. In exchange for food and water rations we want you to turn over your Divergents." I zone out at the word divergent. Instantly reaching for Tobias' hand and I grip his fingers tightly. … "If you do not hand over one divergent in 24 hours you will not receive any supplies and we will attack your compound." The message finishes and I look up at Tobias. He has a terrified look on his face. I know that this is bad, but I am left wondering if I missed something while I was zoned out after he takes off running. I follow as quickly as I can, but his long legs carry him away from me. Uriah catches up and starts running next to me.

"Where is he going?" I pant

"I assume he's trying to get his hands on the list that Erudite referred to in their message." Uriah explains.

"List? What list?"

"Didn't you hear? They said they had a list of all known divergents among the factions."

I pale at Uriah's words. My name is probably on that list, along with Tobias' and Uriah's. I hope that Tobias can get to it before anyone else can.

Uriah and I finally make it to the control room and I lean against the door frame panting heavily, while my head pounds furiously. I watch as Tobias quickly types on the keypad in front of the main computer. I don't know anything about computers so I can only guess at what he's doing, but Uriah must know something because he goes over and starts to help Tobias. We hear heavy footsteps coming down the hall and I look worriedly towards them.

"Tris, shut the door and lock it behind you." Tobias commands.

I quickly do as he says. We hear people on the other side of the door and banging sounds like someone is trying to break through it. "Go get a gun and shoot the lock out you idiots." We hear someone yell from the other side.

"Hurry up!" I urge the guys.

"One minute." Tobias replies. "There, got it." He holds up a little drive with a successful look on his face. I hear more people shuffling outside the door and then the gunshot goes off. I dive away from the door as Tobias and Uriah duck behind the desk. When I look up Tori is walking in, followed by several angry looking Dauntless.

"What are you three doing in here?" Tori asks.

"We were just searching the database for floor plans of the Erudite complex. We want to break in and steal some supplies." Uriah quickly explains. "What the hell are you guys doing shooting a gun at the door?"

"It was locked." Tori answers.

"Well yeah we didn't want to be interrupted." Uriah gives her his best, are-you-dumb look.

Tori slowly looks at each one of us in turn, her eyes are searching for something, I assume it's anything to give her reasonable doubt to accuse us.

"Did you all hear the message from Erudite?" She asks finally.

"Well who could miss it, it's like they are trying to blow our eardrums out or something." Uriah jokes.

"We need to find that list."

"Already done." Tobias replies. I turn to look at him with an incredulous look. We just spent 10 minutes trying to prevent them from getting their hands on that list and he is just going to hand it over to them. That list could put us all in serious danger. "I took the liberty of destroying it in our system." He finishes.

"You did what!?" Tori yells at him.

"Divergence is nothing, it's just another way for Erudite to make us fight amongst ourselves. The names on that list were probably picked strategically to throw us off our game."

"Don't you think the members of Dauntless and Candor deserve to decide that for themselves?" Tori questions.

"Maybe." He shrugs, "but it's done now." I smile slightly, not allowing it to really reach my face or betray my true emotions, but I am sincerely happy that Tobias told them that we deleted the information. Now maybe we can focus on getting into Erudite and exchanging supplies with Amity instead of continually fighting amongst ourselves.

Tobias walks casually to me and holds out his hand for me to take. I take it giving him a sincere smile while my back is turned from the others and he pulls me out the door. Uriah follows right after us.

"Whew, that was close." He mutters just loud enough for us to hear.

"Too close." I murmur back.

We make our way to the cafeteria, and see all of our friends seated at our usual table. Well, not _all _of our friends, Christina isn't there. The mood at the table is somber, no one is really speaking.

"Where did you three run off to so quickly?" Lynn asks.

"Control room." Tobias states.

"Did you find the list?" she asks again, curiosity written in her features.

"No, we destroyed the data link." He explains. Lynn's face falls, I don't know why everyone is so afraid of divergents. If anything we can be an asset in the war, thinking like other factions. Shauna slumps down into the chair next to Lynn and places her head in her hands.

"What's up?" Lynn nudges her sister's arm.

"Rough night… and day." Shauna replies. "They don't think Christina is going to make it unless she gets medicine that only Erudite has."

I freeze with my fork halfway to my mouth. Suddenly feeling very sick and not at all hungry.

"I'm going to Erudite tonight." My voice doesn't waver when I speak.

"I'm going with you." Uriah says. There is a chorus of me toos. I look at Tobias, he looks sad, defeated almost, but he responds with as much conviction as I had.

"Where you go, I'll follow."


	22. Chapter 22

**AN: I just went to see the Divergent movie again, yes again and it got me more motivated for writing, so I have another update for you all tonight. I hope you enjoy! Thank you again for all the favorites, follows and reviews. It seriously makes my day every time I get a notification for this story.**

**Enjoy! :-)**

Tobias POV

I close my eyes and lean back in my chair to stretch. I've been sitting in the same position for nearly two hours, scouring the blue prints of the Erudite buildings we will be attacking and raiding. Once again Tris proved to all of us how smart she can be. It was my assumption, and I think everyone else's too, that we would attack Erudite's main HQ and get our medical supplies from there. Tris' plan is much more elaborate.

A large group will indeed be attacking their HQ, from a distance, so there is less chance of injuries. While that's happening two smaller groups will raid two Erudite storehouses on opposite sides of Erudite territory. This plan will optimize our chances for gaining supplies while minimizing our risk. Also, Erudite's logic will expect Dauntless to be hot-headed warriors seeking destruction, so they will focus their energy on our main attack. Hopefully, this will help us since we know once we hit their storehouses we most likely won't be able to do it again.

As I stretch I watch Tris pace back and forth across the room. She is mumbling to herself, her eyebrows pulled together while she thinks. I know she is trying to think of every possible way this plan could go wrong, so we can be prepared, but she is making me more nervous. I can tell everyone else feels the same from the wary glances they keep directing at her.

I see Dee get up from her conversation with Daniel and Uriah and go over to Tris. I observed Dee's bravery on our trip to Amity, and now I am watching her show her kindness. My guess is, I will find Dee's name on the list of divergents that still hides in my pocket. I listen quietly to Dee and Tris' conversation.

"Hun, you're worrying yourself for nothing. The plan is solid." Dee says kindly.

"But there are still so many what-ifs." Tris complains.

"You can only do so much, the rest is fate."

"I don't believe in fate."

"Then believe in yourself and your friends. Come on we need your help with planning this Amity rendezvous." Dee laughs lightly and Tris gives her a wry smile. Tris catches my eye and I know she knows I've been eavesdropping. She tells Dee she'll be right there and then walks over to where I'm sitting. I'm surprised when instead of chastising me for being nosy she plops down on my lap.

"Tired?" I ask.

"Not really, just sort of drained."

"Hmmm, I know what you mean. It's been a long few days."

"Has it really only been a few days?" she asks me with a hint of disbelief in her voice. I don't blame her it feels more like weeks or months have passed.

"Mhmm, but I doubt wars are won or lost in days."

"How would you know?"

"Just a guess." I shrug. Tris buries her face in my chest and wraps her arms around me. I settle my chin on her head and breathe in her scent. I love our little moments like this, I only wish we were alone. Too soon, Tris unwraps her arms from around me and stands up. She gives me a small smile, I lean up a little and press my lips quickly to hers, a promise of more to come, when we are alone.

I turn my attention back to the maps, searching for any weak spots, though I don't see any. We chose the storehouse locations carefully. Soon everyone is finishing up their tasks and excusing themselves to get some rest. I get up and walk over to Tris.

"Do you wanna head back to the apartment for a bit?" I ask.

"Sure," she bites her lip and I can tell something is bothering her.

"What's up?"

"Can we… well would you mind if we stopped by to see Christina first?" she asks tentatively eyes glued to the floor the whole tome.

"I think that's a good idea. Let's go."

We walk hand in hand out of the mostly empty room. I notice that Dauntless has been a lot quieter lately than usual. I know that this war is taking its toll on everyone.

"We should start training the Candor members tomorrow." I say abruptly.

Tris bobs her head in response, but I can tell her thoughts are somewhere else. I mentally face palm myself. Of course her thoughts are somewhere else, we are going to visit her dying friend in the infirmary and then tonight we are storming off to attack Erudite in an attempt to save said friend. I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her close to me as we walk; I want her to know I am here for her right now.

Tris POV

Tobias wraps his arm around my waist and I instantly feel a warmth grow inside me, replacing the cold despair of the moment. As soon as I allow the warmth in, I feel guilty. Why should I be able to enjoy this feeling, with someone I love when another person I love is dying. We make it to the infirmary and I ask the nurse at the front desk where Christina's room is. She directs us down the hall, and when we reach the door I pause for a moment, trying to mentally prepare myself for what's inside, but when the door opens I freeze in place. Nothing could have prepared me for this. Christina lies in a bed, looking pale. There are several machines in the room that I don't recognize and a constant beep sound comes from one of them.

Will is sitting in a chair next to her bed, holding her limp hand in his.

"She looks so small." I murmur.

"Careful, remember when someone said that same thing about you not too long ago?" Tobias whispers in my ear. His words almost cause me to smile, almost, if only my words would have caused her to wake up, like hers did to me.

I cross the room with timid steps. Will finally seems to notice our presence in the room. He tries to smile at me, but it comes off as more of a crazed look. I smile softly at him.

"Hey, Christina, Tris and Four are here to see you." Will murmurs quietly to her. "It's been studied that people still hear things when they are unconscious and it can help to talk to them." He explains to me.

I go stand on the other side of Christina and take her hand. "I'm so sorry, I'm sorry I wasn't there, and I'm sorry you were hurt." I whisper to her. "We are going to Erudite, we will get the medicine and then you'll be good as new. Once you're up, I promise to go shopping with you as much as you like and not complain once." I promise. We sit in silence for a while. Tobias comes to stand by me and he rubs my back reassuringly. After some time of standing there Tobias takes my hand and whispers in my ear, "We should get some rest, we only have two hours until we meet the others." I don't acknowledge him. I just want to stay here.

"Tris, please, you need a clear head tonight, we all do, let's go get some rest." He pleads with me.

I don't know why, but I feel my eyes filling with tears. I guess I'm afraid that if I leave Christina, something bad will happen to her. I am afraid this is the last time I will see her.

"It's ok Tris. I'll make sure nothing happens and you bring back what we need to help her." Will reassures me. I look at him and he has tears in his eyes also. I quickly brush away the wetness on my cheeks and lean down closer to Christina.

"I'll be back soon, you just have to hold on okay. I love you."

I let Tobias lead me out of the infirmary and to our apartment. He leads me straight to our bed and we lay down curled against one another with my back flush against his chest. I focus on his breathing. His chest rises and falls evenly, I know he is not sleeping though because his hand draws lazy circles where it rests on my stomach. We lay together like that for a while and then I am being woken by a loud beeping alarm. Tobias sluggishly reaches across me to shut it off.

"I love you." I whisper to him. He pauses, looking me in the eyes, his eyes are such a beautiful deep blue, the color of a midnight sky being lit by the moon.

"I love you too." He finally says after a moment and we are kissing, hungrily. It's like we can't get enough of one another, quickly enough. Abruptly he pulls away, looking me in the eyes again. It's like he is searching for something.

"Promise me you'll be careful tonight?" he asks.

Somewhere inside me I feel my independent nature screaming for me to tell him to stop worrying, that I am a big girl and more importantly, that there are more important things at stake than my life. I push that feeling down inside of me and for now I ignore it. Right now I choose to be selfless and kind, and I tell him what I know he needs to here, even if it isn't true.

"I promise."

He continues to search my eyes, trying to decide whether or not to believe my promise. After a moment he seems to deem it good enough for now, because he nods, kisses me on the forehead and gets up to go into the bathroom connected to our room.

I head into the kitchen and search the cupboards for something to eat. Realizing I haven't eaten much of anything in the past few days. I find a slice of Dauntless cake in the fridge and I take it out and start eating. Tobias comes in from the other room and grins at me, "Eating my cake, are we?"

"Your cake? It was in my fridge." I joke back. He walks up and grabs a bite with his fingers. I playfully stab my fork at him, "Manners." I mutter. This just causes him to grin wider. I ignore him and head to change into clothes for tonight. I choose black pants and a black shirt before I pull my hair up into a ponytail.

I walk back into the kitchen, steal the last bite of cake from the plate and smile smugly at Tobias.

"Let's go." I say around a mouthful of cake.

"Cake stealer." He shouts as I exit the door.

I see Uriah walking down the hall from his apartment. "What's this about a cake stealer?" he asks. I just shrug my shoulders and swallow loudly. Tobias exits the apartment behind me with a grumpy look on his face. Uriah breaks out laughing.

'What in the heck is so funny?" Tobias growls in his best instructor voice. Although, this just causes Uriah to laugh louder. He is still laughing when we make it to the tracks to meet up with everyone. Tobias is sending him death glares and I have a hand over my mouth to contain the laughter that wants to escape.

"What's so funny?" Zeke asks his brother with a confused look on his face.

"Cake…Stealer…" is all Uriah manages to get out between spurts of laughter. This causes me to lose the weak control I held over my own laughter. Soon everyone is laughing and no one really knows why except for me, Tobias, and Uriah. We are unable to settle down until we hear the low rumble of the train in the distance. The reality of what we are about to do hits us and we sober up quickly.

"Okay we all know the plan. Follow your group members and try to stick together." Tobias commands, his voice carrying even though he isn't yelling. We all gather in our groups. I am with Tobias, Uriah, Lynn, Zeke, Tori and a few other dauntless members. We will be the group attacking HQ. Our group was chosen, because we are the best shooters and the fastest runners. The first of the storehouse groups gets off as we arrive at the edge of Erudite. I watch as Dee and Daniel jump off the train, silently wishing them good luck, hoping that I won't lose any more friends tonight.

Our group jumps off next. We run like ghosts through the dark streets. As we get closer to Erudite headquarters my heart starts to beat a little faster. The street lights are on in this section of the city. Apparently, Erudite doesn't care about wasting power. We try to stay hidden in the shadows, but it becomes more difficult the closer we get, and the brighter the lights get. Tobias motions for us to gather in a nearby alleyway.

"We need to split up," He whispers. "Tris, Uriah, Tori, come with me to the east. The rest of you head west. Stick to the plan, don't attack until 1:30 and then get to the train by 2:30." Everyone nods. It was enthralling to watch Tobias take command like that. He is such a natural leader and I am glad he is acting like one now. We are in position 10 minutes before go time and we quietly wait in the darkness. No one dares to speak in case we are overheard. The minutes tick slowly by, it feels like hours, but every time I glance at my watch only a minute has passed.

"Two minutes, everyone get ready." I tell the group, but as soon as the words leave my lips I hear the unmistakable sound of gunfire. It is coming from the west, meaning it is either the other attack group or our second supply group. "Why can't anything ever go as planned?" I moan to myself, but I know Tobias and Tori hear me, because they both shoot me looks. I focus more on Tobias and his look is that of an instructor telling his initiate to focus on the task at hand. I nod my head to let him know I understand and the chaos begins.


	23. Chapter 23

**AN: I had so many lovely reviews after the last chapter, thank you all so much! **

**Enjoy! :-)**

Tris POV

It's obvious from the moment that our "distraction" begins that Erudite has been prepared for an attack for some time now. I can only hope that an attack is the only thing they've been prepared for and they aren't ready for our raid on their stores.

Moments after the gunfire began we sent our smoke bombs soaring to Erudite HQ. From our distance only a few penetrated the glass walls, but it still causes many people to flee the building. I am not surprised at the amount of people Erudite has working this late at night. Their thirst for knowledge is greater than anything, and I guess that includes time. We begin shooting into the crowds filing out of the building. We are not trying to kill anyone, however injuring them isn't above us. I think we are all a little blood hungry after what we've experienced at the hands of these people. It only take five minutes before return fire comes at us, along with smoke bombs of their own. The smoke fills the air, penetrating my lungs. I begin coughing wildly, unable to breathe normally.

"Time to move!" Tobias shouts from beside me. He places a reassuring hand on my back and guides me to the end of the alleyway.

This is part of the plan, we are going to continually migrate locations, hoping to throw off Erudite's attack efforts and make them think they are being attacked by more Dauntless than they actually are. We race to the next location, only two buildings over and quickly climb the steps to the third floor. Height is our best weapon right now, because it enables us to see above the smoke and the crowd. It also enables us to target the Dauntless traitors. Something I think several of us take pleasure in, maybe even too much. I keep my eyes moving, constantly finding my next target and the biggest threats. We are well under cover and none of our numbers have fallen yet, but several enemies are down.

In a flash there is a bright streak coming at us and we dive for cover realizing that it is a mini-explosive. It explodes in a flash of light and sound. So, powerful that it knocks Uriah off his feet and into the wall. Debris from the explosion is scattered everywhere and we decide it is time to move on, quickly scrambling for the stairs only to find them blocked by debris. In an instant height has become a bigger disadvantage than advantage.

"We have to jump!" I shout.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Uriah howls over the noise as he scramble to his feet. I am glad it appears the blast didn't cause too much damage.

"Oh quit being a pansycake and jump!" I command. Uriah scowls at me before taking his position on the window sill. I watch as he disappears out of the window and Tori immediately follows.

"We have to go now." I tell Tobias, I know he must be at least a little weary about the height, but he just nods and I can read on his face, that he is in full Dauntless mode, no fear is stopping him now.

"You go first." I tell him. We are positioned in front of the window when I see a flash of light out of the corner of my eye. Tobias must see it too, because as he jumps off the ledge he grabs ahold of my waist and pulls me with him. We are not quick enough however and the blast knocks us hard out the window. I am blown farther than Tobias and I land with a crash on my shoulder; my attempt to tuck and roll only result in a face plant and the ground stings my cheek. Uriah is at my side in an instant helping me stand.

"You okay." His eyes are anxious.

"Yeah." I manage to groan out.

I see Tobias hobbling over to me, clearly supporting more of his weight on one leg. I glance down and see why; his left pant leg is torn at the knee and blood covers the lower half. His hands are also bleeding from scrapes. Once he makes it to me, we embrace for a quick second, thankfully neither of us is more severely hurt. We have no time to waste however and we quickly move on to our next location. This time we have moved further away from HQ, trying to pull anyone in our direction and away from the storehouses.

We stumble down a short alleyway, staying in the shadows as much as possible. Occasionally we see or hear people coming after us, which we take as a good sign. I am lagging slightly behind the others as we turn the corner from an alleyway to pass a building. Suddenly a hand comes out of a doorway and grabs me. On instinct I let out a scream and the others turn around, guns raised to see what caused it. A moment later when the door opens I am unsure how to react.

"Caleb?" I whisper. I had been thinking about my brother a lot lately, wondering what he was up to and how he was reacting to this war. After our parents died it became important for me to find him and now he stands here in front of me.

"Beatrice." He pulls me into a tight embrace, only to release me a second later. "You need to follow us." He urges me.

"We can't, we have a plan." I tell him.

"This is more important." He argues. The others in my group stand by, watching our exchange with curious expressions.

"This is my brother." I quickly explain and realization washes over their features, but they are still wary, guns at the ready. Faction before blood I guess, although I never really believed in that.

"Come on." I motion for the others to follow. Tobias immediately steps forward, as does Uriah and that is all it takes for Tori to follow. We enter a small room, that appears to be someone's living room.

"They will not suspect you here, for a little while, at least." A girl explains. I vaguely remember her. As I look at her features, I realize she is the sister who visited Will during visiting day.

"We want to help you." Caleb reassures all of us. "We have information about Erudite's plans and several of us are willing to stay in Erudite to be spies for Dauntless."

"Who?" I ask him, uncertain if I can trust anyone besides him at the moment.

"Me and a few others." He says vaguely. I nod my head, but Tobias steps forward abruptly.

"And how do we know we can trust you." He questions, leaning forward just enough to tower over my brother. Caleb's face flashes with fear, but he doesn't cower under Tobias' gaze.

Instead he stands up a little straighter before replying, "Because Beatrice is my sister and they killed our parents."

Tobias scrutinizes him for a moment later before stepping back to me and placing his arm protectively around my waist. Caleb watches and gives me a stern look, which I reply to by placing my arm around Tobias' waist.

"What's the plan?" I ask.

"Well you are going to leave here and hopefully not be seen, Cara and Fernando would like to leave with you. They both have extensive knowledge of Erudite and medical training that I suspect will come in handy for you."

"Okay and what about you?"

"I will head back to Erudite and continue on as normal. Cara knows the plan for how we will stay in contact and pass along information."

I scowl at Caleb. "And if I don't trust Cara."

"Beatrice…" Caleb starts, but he is interrupted by Cara.

"I understand we didn't get off on the best foot, but I'm Will's sister and I care about him. I want to help you, please let me prove it to you." She explains, as if I would instantly trust her after the words left your mouth.

I am reluctant to go along with this plan, but I know we don't have much time before someone finds us and it seems my brother and the others have clearly thought through their plan.

"Okay." I sigh.

"Good, you need to go now." Caleb urges us.

We embrace quickly and I whisper in his ear, "I love you, stay safe."

"You too." He replies. As we start to leave I notice Tori hesitate.

"I'm going with him." She states. We all turn with shocked looks. "Look, I don't trust them and I think someone should go with to keep an eye on them." She explains.

"Except, we don't trust you." Uriah blurts out.

"Fair enough, but that's exactly why Erudite won't suspect me. I can explain everything that happened with the leaders and Tris and Alec and I'll tell them I think you've all gone soft. It's actually perfect cover."

"No. I don't trust you, and you have too much information you can give away, or more likely, have taken from you ." Tobias proclaims.

"We don't have time for this." Tori demands.

"I agree with Tori." I comment.

"Have you lost your mind?" Uriah interjects.

"No, her logic is sound and I think having one of us inside of Erudite is preferable to having to rely on them. No offense Caleb."

"None taken."

"But how can we be sure that she's one of us?" Tobias asks me.

"Because her brother was divergent and she wants revenge for his death as badly as I want revenge for my parent's deaths. I understand her." I mumble the last sentence.

"Thank you." Tori tells me. I nod vaguely in reply.

"So it's settled." I question the rest of my group. No one responds, but no one objects either so I let the issue drop. "Let's get going then. I want to get to the rendezvous spot a little early now, to make sure it hasn't been compromised."

We quickly make our way out a back exit of the house onto a dark street. "Which way to the tracks?" I ask Cara.

"That way." She point down the street to our right, "but they'll most likely be crawling with soldiers. Where is your rendezvous point?"

"Washington and LeSalle." I tell her.

"Smart, right behind HQ, everyone will think that you've picked a spot farther out on the tracks. Anyway, we'll stop at Washington and Clark to make sure the coast is clear before heading to Lesalle."

"Wait who made you our leader." Uriah questions.

"Tris." She turns to me.

"I trust what she is telling us, let's go with it."

"Great." Uriah grumbles sarcastically.

"Okay enough talk, let's go." We sprint the half a mile, before we stop, up ahead at the tracks we can spot a soldier on the corner. "They must have one on each block." I mutter.

We creep forward, cautious not to make a sound. We are ten minutes early and don't want to attract any unnecessary attention to our position. As we approach, I see several figures huddled in the dark. I raise my gun towards them and the others mimic my motions as we move closer. Once we are within sight of them, they quickly raise their weapons at us. Luckily, no one is trigger happy, because it only takes a moment to realize it is one of the raid groups. Sitting around them are bags loaded with what I assume are supplies.

"Everyone grab a bag, I want to be ready to go as soon as the other group arrives." I command quietly. I shrug into a pack and Tobias does the same next to me. "You and I are going to go first, take out the soldier at the corner and any more that might be waiting. The others will follow close behind." I tell him. He nods and we turn to tell everyone the plan.

Ten long, anxious minutes later the other group arrives also laden down with bags filled with supplies. Everyone not already carrying a bag, takes one from someone carrying two. I see a few of the bigger members take two bags, easily carrying the weight.

Tobias walks over to me, "The other attack group isn't back yet." He tells me. "No one has heard from them or seen them since we split up."

"They have five minutes until the train gets here, we give them four and then we have to go. We will have to try to find out more later." I tell him half-heartedly. I have friends in that group, people I don't want to leave behind, but I also have friends in Dauntless waiting for the supplies we have, and the next train doesn't come for three hours.

We wait in silence for the first three minutes and then people start getting anxious.

"We are going to miss the train if we wait any longer." Someone says.

I glance at my watch one last time; they have thirty seconds left before we have to go. The seconds pass too quickly and I give the signal. We all begin creeping forward. As we approach Tobias shoots the first guard, killing him instantly. We hear shouts and two more guards come into view. We immediately take them out and start running. As we run I glance around me, but no more guards are approaching, and neither does any of our friends. Cara's prediction must have been correct, the guards must be focusing their efforts on the outer stretches of Erudite's train line. We hastily file onto the train without another sign of Erudite and we are headed home.

Seconds after we jump on the train, three dark figures hop aboard. On alert we all raise our weapons. There is a flash of moonlight that illuminates them and I fling myself at the nearest person.

"We were so worried." I tell Lynn.

"Yeah sorry, we got cornered a couple blocks from the rendezvous spot and we had no choice, but to jump on a little late." Lynn enlightens us.

"Where are the others?" Uriah questions from behind me as Zeke and another man step out of the shadows. Lynn's face falls.

"We were attacked at our second stop, a couple of us got caught in a mini-bomb blast." Zeke explains. He has a large gash in the side of his face and there are a few smatters of blood on his shirt. I shudder remembering our own close call with those particular Erudite weapons.

Everyone spreads out across the train for the remainder of the trip back to Dauntless. I sit with my back leaning against one far wall with Tobias. His arm wrapped loosely around my shoulders, my head resting idly on his chest.

Dee makes her way over to me and plops down next to me.

"There was hardly anyone guarding the storehouses, so we easily caught them off guard."

"That's good. Were you able to find everything on the list?"

"Yep, and with help from a surprisingly friendly Erudite, we were able to obtain a few other advanced medicines that we didn't know about."

"A friendly Erudite huh?" I question with my brows raised.

"Mhmm, who would have thought we even have friends in that faction."

"Yup, who would have thought?" I answer, while watching Cara and Fernando converse quietly in the opposite corner of the train car.

I think about my brother, and how it feels like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders, now that I've seen him and know that he is on my side. It is also a relief to find out he already knew about mom and dad and he was as angry as me. Maybe the saying, "faction before blood", doesn't hold as much weight as everyone thinks it does. Maybe it is just a false ideal that needs to be crushed. If we can get rid of all the preconceived notions, that our founders created when they created the faction system, maybe, just maybe, we can all learn to live in peace.


	24. Chapter 24

**AN: Sorry for the wait! I just posted my new story that I've been working on for about a month now. Please go check is out! It's called Becoming Whole Again and it is rated M. **

**Thank you for all the reviews on the last chapter. I received a whole bunch the day I posted, you guys are awesome!**

**Enjoy! :-)**

Everyone sighs a collective sigh of relief as we near Dauntless. This mission has been surprisingly successful and I feel a small smile of satisfaction creep onto my face. It is tempered only by the knowledge that several Dauntless gave their lives tonight for our cause. When we enter Dauntless we are greeted by a large crowd of people milling about. They catch sight of us and start whooping and hollering and stomping their feet. It reminds me of the first time I entered the cafeteria during initiation and it makes me feel like I am home.

I see Cara and Fernando huddled together eyeing the crowd nervously, but soon, despite their blue clothes people start clapping them on the back, welcoming them to Dauntless. Their nervous expressions quickly turn to smiles. I catch Cara's eye and wave her over my direction.

"Your faction is crazy!" she exclaims when they finally make it through the teeming crowd.

"Yup, and we wouldn't have it any other way." Zeke exclaims proudly. I smile broadly and nod my head in agreement.

"Come on, let's get these supplies to the doctors. I want to check in on Christina." I tell the others. Our group claws its way through the crowd, people are still cheering and slapping our backs as we go.

Once we exit the crowd I spot Shauna waiting for us at a nearby hallway.

"What the hell happened to you?" she questions as she scans each of us. Lastly looking at Zeke, she makes her way over to him and gently brushes her fingers over his injured cheek.

"Just a few bumps and scrapes. Nothing really serious." He assures her with a wave of his hand.

"I'll be the judge of that." She scolds, slapping his hand down.

"Oww." Zeke fake whines as he sticks his bottom lip out in a pout.

"How's Christina?" I ask.

"Same as when you left, but if you got the medical supplies we need, she should be a lot better soon."

"What's wrong with her?" Cara asks curiously.

Shauna replies in an accusatory tone, "She was shot, by one of you." Shauna towers a bit over Cara, but Cara doesn't back down. Seems like everyone is showing their Dauntless side tonight.

"Bring me to her and let's see what I can do to help then." Cara counters, keeping her gaze fixed on Shauna the whole time.

"Follow me then." Shauna says and we all follow her through the halls of Dauntless towards the infirmary. I walk behind Cara and Fernando, with Tobias at my side. He gently takes my hand in his, entangling our fingers. I look up at him and he gives me a small smile, I squeeze his hand lightly and look forward again. As the adrenaline begins to wear off I am becoming more nervous to see Christina and to know if Cara can help her. We make it to the infirmary and I hesitate at the doors. Tobias notices and stops beside me beckoning the others to go in before us.

"It's going to be okay Tris."

"You can't know that. What if Cara can't help her." My hands are trembling now and I can feel tears pricking at the back of my eyes, but I refuse to cry right now.

"Tris." Tobias places his hand on my chin and lifts my face to look him in the eye. "It's going to be okay."

I don't respond, instead I wrap my arms around him and bury my face in his chest. He hugs me tight to him until I release him and we walk hand in hand into the infirmary.

We walk into Christina's room just behind Cara and Shauna. "Will!" Cara exclaims and Will's head shoots up from its position resting on the side of Christina's bed.

"Cara! What are you doing here?" He asks her as he gets up and embraces her in a hug.

"I came to help."

"Can you help her?" He asks slowly, motioning to Christina.

"I don't know Will, but I'm going to try."

"Please Cara, I love her. I can't lose her." His eyes fill with tears as he speaks, which causes mine to do the same. It is strange and difficult to see one of my best friends so emotional. Cara hugs Will again, rubbing his back, to comfort him. When he's calmed down a bit she addresses the whole room.

"I need all of you to leave. I'm going to try to help her now, but you can't be in here while I do that."

"I won't leave her." Will says resolutely.

Shauna places her hand on Will's shoulder reassuringly. "I'll stay with her Will. Go get some food and rest. Christina is going to need you more when she wakes up and you need to take care of yourself."

Cara starts to object, but Shauna puts up her hand. "I am a trained Dauntless nurse. I will stay and help you and I'm not taking no for an answer."

Cara sighs deeply but nods her head. "Someone please get Fernando; I am going to need his help."

"I'll get him." Tobias offers and then he whispers in my ear, "Take Will to the cafeteria, I'll meet you there." He gives me a quick kiss before leaving the room. I take Will's arm and lead him out the door. Before we are completely out Cara stops us.

"I'll do my best. I promise." She vows.

"Come tell us when you're done please, Shauna will know where we are." I tell her and then Will and I leave.

"How'd it go in Erudite?" Will asks me as we walk. He takes a quick sideways glance at me and lightly touches my scratched up face.

"It went fine. The raid groups had more success than we hoped." I answer nonchalantly. Not adding any details about the trouble the attack groups ran into. Will doesn't need anything else to worry about right now. We reach the cafeteria and find an empty table to sit at. I go get us some food. By the time I am back at the table Zeke and Uriah have joined us. They both look like they've been cleaned up a little bit and Uriah places a portable first aid kit on the table.

"You should clean up those cuts." He tells me.

"Later." I wave him off.

"Now." Tobias' voice tells me as I feel someone sit down next to me. "I'll do it." He says motioning for the first aid kit from Uriah. Uriah passes it down and I watch Tobias take out several bandages and cleaning supplies. He pours ointment on a pad and starts to gently rub my face. I hiss in pain as the ointment comes in contact with my open wounds, but I grit my teeth and let Tobias continue. Once they are clean he places a bandage over them and does the same for the wounds on my hands.

"Some of the people are saying they want a statement from our leaders." Zeke whispers across the table to us. I shoot Tobias and Uriah looks. They both nod and together the three of us stand and approach the front of the cafeteria. There is a raised platform used for just such events. We climb atop it and the room goes silent. It's an eerie silent. I look to Tobias, unsure of what we should say to everyone. He clears his throat before addressing the waiting crowd.

"As you may have heard, we attacked Erudite tonight and we were successful." Tobias speaks in a steady commanding voice, not needing to shout to be heard or acknowledged. "We proved to them tonight that we are Dauntless. But tonight not only were we brave, we were also intelligent. Then we ran into some Erudite who showed us that they are not only intelligent, but they are also kind." He pauses trying to decide how best to express what he wants to say. I hold my breath in anticipation of his next words. No one in the cafeteria moves or makes a sound either and finally Tobias starts to speak again. "I know that all of you heard Erudite's message for us to hand over our Divergents, but as your leader I refuse to surrender and show cowardice. Each and every one of us needs to start living again by our manifesto. We do believe in ordinary acts of bravery and we do believe in the actions of one man to save another. We will not bow down to Erudite and allow them to control us out of fear. I am Dauntless and I am Divergent and I will not bow to Erudite."

My jaw drops slightly as Tobias finishes his speech. He just announced to the whole faction that he is Divergent. He just gave them the most dangerous piece of information about himself. More dangerous than any information about his past. I hold my breath in anticipation for their reaction. Seconds after he is finished the silent crowd erupts into cheers. People are cheering and clapping and chanting, "Dauntless, Dauntless." I smile in relief and pride. Tobias has managed to reunite our faction as one. We climb down and receive slaps on the back. The room finally quiets down after we make it back to our table and sit down. People resume what they were doing before we took the stage.

"Man that was some speech." Zeke tells Tobias, a look of awe on his face. Tobias shrugs and shoves some Dauntless cake in his mouth. This causes Zeke to erupt in laughter, "cake stealer!", and the rest of our table joins in. Once we finish all the food on the table we stay and talk for a while. Will excuses himself to shower and sleep as he stifles a yawn. Tobias notices and stands up, pulling me with him.

"We're gonna get some rest also. Come find us when Cara's done." He tells Zeke and Uriah. They both nod and bid us goodbye. We walk lazily down the halls making our way to our apartment. Once inside I can't even find the energy to change clothes and I simply collapse onto the bed. My eyes are heavy and I drift off into a deep sleep, with the comforting feeling of Tobias' arms wrapped around me.


	25. Chapter 25

**AN: Your reviews have been so encouraging and wonderful I didn't want to leave you hanging any longer. Thank you!**

**Enjoy! :-)**

I wake to a loud knock on the door. Tobias' arms encase me in an iron grip and I struggle to break free.

"Tobias!" I shout at him, "Tobias, wake up." I shake his shoulder as hard as I can manage. He jumps up with a start and reaches for the gun we keep on a table beside the bed.

"Tobias, calm down, someone's at the door and I couldn't get up." I explain quickly to him. He shakes his head, still trying to wake up from the deep sleep he was in. I quickly pull on some shorts and a top noticing now that Tobias must have taken my other clothes off before he fell asleep earlier. I throw open the door to find Zeke mid knock, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"They're done with Christina's surgery. Everyone is heading down there to wait for her to wake up." He tells me quickly. By the time he's finished Tobias has emerged from the bedroom now looking much more awake.

"We'll be down in 20 minutes." He tells Zeke and then shuts the door practically in Zeke face.

"20 minutes, Tobias I want to go right now." I whine slightly.

"Let's shower first and grab some breakfast." He counters. "I am sure she won't wake up right away."

I don't want to give in, but I know I haven't showered in a long time and my stomach grumbles loudly. This causes Tobias to chuckle. "Fine." I concede.

I jump in the shower and wash quickly. Normally I would enjoy the warm stream of water, but today I can't help but think about getting to Christina before she wakes up. Once I am out I am greeted by Tobias holding two muffins. He tosses one to me.

"You can head down there. I'm going to grab a quick shower and then I'll meet you there." He tells me. I nod my head in agreement, get dressed quickly and head out. Once I leave I start to worry about what condition Christina is in. Since Zeke didn't say anything bad and seemed to be in a rather good mood I decide that she can't be doing too badly. Still I want to see her and these thoughts put some urgency in my step.

I make it to the infirmary and walk through the doors to be greeted with all of our friends lounging around the waiting room. Uriah spots me first and gets up from his seat, offering it to me to sit down since there is no available seats left. I wave him off though.

"I just got out of bed Uriah, I'd rather stand right now, thanks though. Have they said anything about her?"

"Not much. Cara came out a little while ago and said that everything went really well and she doesn't see any reason why Christina won't make a full recovery. They let Will go back to sit with her until she wakes up."

I smile in relief at receiving some good news. "So we have the meeting with Amity tomorrow, right?" Uriah interrupts my thoughts.

"Oh yeah. We should probably start planning for that."

"Yeah. I was thinking about running to get Dee and seeing if we could use one of the doctor's offices to do some planning since I know none of us will want to leave here until Christina wakes up and Cara said that could be awhile." Uriah rambles quickly.

"Sounds good." I tell him. Uriah gets up whispers to Marlene and then leaves to find Dee. A couple minutes later Tobias walks through the doors and, upon spotting me leaning against the wall, he makes his way over.

"Hey. How's Christina?" he asks me right away, knowing the most important thing on my mind right now is the welfare of my friend.

"They said she should be fine. We just have to wait for her to wake up." I explain to him in a shortened version of what Uriah told me.

"That's good." Tobias smiles and hugs me gently. I hug him back and breathe in his scent.

We are stilled locked in our embrace when Uriah walks back through the doors followed by Dee and Daniel. Uriah talks to one of the staff at the front desk quickly and when she motions to one of the closed doors behind her, I assume it's regarding us using one of the offices. He nods in my direction and I follow him into the room. Uriah, Dee, Daniel, Tobias, Zeke, Marlene, Lynn, and I all crowd into the rather small office.

Dee unrolls a map of the city on the desk and I notice several locations have already been marked in red. "These are the first three locations that we will meet Amity at." She tells us pointing to the spots indicated. I notice that all of the spots are far from Erudite, along the fence line and near the railroad tracks. This will make it less likely we will run into Erudite patrols and easier for us to get the supplies back to Dauntless.

"The first trade will be food in exchange for some hand guns and ammunition." Dee tells us.

"What about water?" Lynn asks.

"Dauntless water reserves are larger than our food stores, so we are going to wait until the second exchange to get some water." She explains. "Especially since we can carry more food if we aren't weighed down by water. And we will only be trading for drinking water. All other water used within Dauntless will have to be rationed until we can make a filtering system."

"I bet Fernando and Cara can help with the filtering system." I tell everyone.

"Good." Dee says. "Now we will want a large enough party to go meet Amity and carry the supplies, but I was thinking we should also send another party towards the Candor section of the city as a distraction in case they have Erudite watching our movements. We will all get on the same train, but the Candor party will get off first."

"That's a good plan." Tobias tells her. "Uriah, Lynn, Zeke and a few others should go to Candor. While Dee, Daniel, Tris, Marlene and I will go to meet the Amity." He suggests. No one argues with their assignments and with those plans completed so quickly we have nothing else to do besides go back into the waiting room and wait.

After waiting for over an hour I have finally settled for sitting on the ground resting my head against Tobias' shoulder. We talked for a little while about meeting Amity and then about what our next steps against Erudite should be, but those topics only keep us occupied for so long. Uriah is a source of amusement as he keeps running around trying to play jokes on certain people or waking anyone, who dares to fall asleep, in a strange way. It becomes less funny when he almost gets stabbed in the face by Lynn's knife as he wakes her up by tickling her with a feather.

After what seems like hours and my butt feels like it has fallen off, Cara finally walks through the doors leading to the patient's rooms.

"She's awake." She tells us with a happy smile of triumph on her face. I quickly jump up from my seat on the floor.

"Can we go see her?" I ask.

"Yes, but one at a time, we don't want to cause too much commotion around her right now."

I look around at everyone, silently asking what my selfless nature would never let me ask out loud.

"Well what are you waiting for Tris! Go on!" Uriah finally urges me on. I grab him into a bear hug with a giant smile on my face and whisper my thanks in his ear. I see Tobias smile softly at me before I turn around and walk back towards Christina's room.

As I walk I rub the sweat off of my palms against the sides of my legs. I've never been this nervous to see my best friend before.

When I walk through the door and see Christina talking softly with a smiling Will, it almost breaks my heart. I rush over to her side and gently wrap my arms around her shoulders.

"I was so scared Christina. I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you. When you came back we didn't know if you would wake up and I…" I ramble on, but I am stopped by a hand flying up to my mouth. I laugh when I realize it is Christina's.

"Stop right there Tris. I am here and I'm fine." She tells me. I smile at her again and sit down in the chair next to her. She asks me about what's been going on and I update her on everything that happened in the day she was out. She thanks me for taking care of Will and I shrug it off telling her that's what best friends are for. After some time of chatting lightly I notice she looks tired and I tell her I should go so that the others can come visit and she can rest. Before I get out of my seat she grabs my hands. I notice her grip is still weak, but it's firm.

"There's something I wanted to tell you and I never got a chance to before I was shot." She whispers to me, tears are filling her eyes. I wait patiently for her to continue. "I wanted to tell you that since initiation you've become my best friend, more like a sister and I love you like a sister." She smiles at me once she's finished. When she's done I have tears in my eyes too and I am taken aback and thoroughly touched by her words.

"Christina, you are the best sister I could ever wish for." I tell her sincerely. "and I love you too."

We hug again before I get up and smile at both her and Will and leave the room. When I walk out into the waiting room Tobias approaches me immediately and becomes concerned noticing the tears in my eyes.

"Is everything okay Tris?" he asks as he places his hands on my upper arms as if to steady me.

I smile back at him, "Everything is amazing." I brush the tears out of my eyes and he stares at me with a confused look on his face.

"Then why are you crying?"

I laugh lightly, "I'm crying because I'm so happy." I tell him as he pulls me into a big hug smiling lightly himself. With my face pressed against his chest I mumble to him, "Christina said she wants to see you next." He releases me and nods his head. I lean casually against the wall as I watch him walk back to Christina's room. The happiness and pure joy I feel at this moment is something I haven't experienced much of lately. This war has deprived us all of laughter and love and joy. I am determined to end this war before it goes on too long. Before many more people are touched by grief and sadness.

**AN: I hope that their reunion was worth the wait. I really have loved the reviews everyone has been posting. Christina is actually one of my favorite characters so I didn't really want to kill her off :-)**


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